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It's official: Cristian Tello will indeed join FC Porto for the next two seasons, on loan, the Portuguese club announced on Wednesday. FC Barcelona also confirmed the news.
Tello will be loaned for two seasons by a fee of €2 million. Porto has a buying option after the end of Year 1, and if they activate it, they'll have to pay an additional €8 million to complete the full signing. They also have the option of not buying him at all and just let him come back to Barça after Year 2. Barcelona can also block the option and call Tello back if they want to.
The 22-year-old forward debuted in 2011 under Pep Guardiola, and showed interesting skills and impressive goalscoring ability, and finished the season as a strong candidate to be a starter moving forward. But with Pep's departure, Tello lost his momentum and his appearances became rarer and rarer as time went on. Last season, under Tata Martino, Tello didn't see almost any time on the pitch, and that led him to ask for a transfer. He has a contract until 2018, and Luis Enrique expressed desire to have him develop somewhere else and then come back to Barça, with more experience and international games under his wing. Porto was interested in Tello since day one, and the negotiations were easy.
Tello will join the rest of the squad in Hrost, Netherlands, and start his preseason as a Dragon. We wish him all the best!
