‘A real betrayal’ – Joan Laporta blasts Dro Fernandez’s ‘backstabbing’ agent after Barcelona exit

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has launched an extraordinary attack on Ivan de la Peña, the agent of teenage talent Dro Fernandez, accusing him of “backstabbing” the club after the midfielder’s shock January move to Paris Saint-Germain.

Speaking to Jijantes, Laporta did not mince words when reflecting on the departure of the 19-year-old, who grew disillusioned with his role under first-team coach Hansi Flick. “Dro’s departure was a real betrayal. I feel bad because I felt betrayed by Ivan de la Peña,” Laporta said. “What happened to Dro was a betrayal; if it had been Jorge Mendes it would not have happened as it did with Ivan de la Peña. It has been a shame and a backstabbing.”

Laporta claimed that de la Peña, a former Barcelona player himself, leveraged a “special relationship” with the club only to engineer an exit that left the president “stabbing in the back.” The Catalan giants ultimately sanctioned the transfer after PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi offered improved financial terms designed, according to Laporta, “to maintain cordial relations with Barça,” a gesture the president publicly acknowledged.

The timing of Fernandez’s exit particularly stung. Laporta revealed that Flick had fast-tracked the youngster into senior-squad dynamics “to the detriment of players who deserved it more because they had Barça more interiorized,” underlining the confidence placed in a prospect now plying his trade in Ligue 1.

Fernandez, for his part, described the decision to leave as “one of the hardest” of his life, but the club’s hierarchy is already taking preventive measures. Sources indicate Barcelona will raise release clauses on their most coveted academy stars to ward off future raids.

Elsewhere on the transfer front, Barcelona remain admirers of Atlético Madrid’s Argentine forward Julián Álvarez, though Atlético reportedly refuse to negotiate with the Catalans, while Portugal international prospects and Inter’s valuation of a key target—believed to command a sizeable summer fee—also feature on the club’s radar.

As the dust settles on Fernandez’s contentious exit, Laporta’s rebuke serves as both a warning to agents and a public declaration that loyalty at Camp Nou is expected to run deeper than contractual fine print.