Marc-Andre ter Stegen has reportedly agreed to leave FC Barcelona on loan and join Ajax, but the move is not yet finished because the clubs still have to settle who pays what. The German goalkeeper’s path out of Camp Nou now runs through a salary split that Barcelona and Ajax have not yet locked in.
The timing matters because Ter Stegen is searching for a way back into regular football after a season that never really started. He suffered another back injury and a hamstring knock in 2025/2026, then was overlooked by Julian Nagelsmann on the international stage. At FC Barcelona, he is also being pushed down the order by Wojciech Szczesny and Joan Garcia, making a departure more than a possibility.
SPORT and Fabrizio Romano were cited as confirming the move, with Romano saying negotiations were well underway on the player side. He also said Michel and Jordi Cruyff want MATS as the new goalkeeper and that the deal is being discussed as an initial loan, with the salary share one of the key points still on the table. SPORT added that Ter Stegen is willing to accept the offer from Ajax.
The financial issue is the part that keeps this from being a done deal. Ajax cannot afford Ter Stegen’s full salary, listed at $17.1 million, or €15 million, and Barcelona would need to cover a substantial portion for the arrangement to work. That is the trade-off behind the headline: Ajax gets an experienced goalkeeper, while Barcelona helps pay to move a captain out of the way.
There is also a wider pattern behind the talks. Ter Stegen spent the second half of last season on loan at Girona, his first move away from FC Barcelona after originally signing in 2014, and that spell was also shaped by injury problems. Ajax’s interest fits into Michel and Jordi Cruyff’s effort to refresh the club, but the size of the wage commitment means the final answer depends less on ambition than on arithmetic.
If Barcelona and Ajax can bridge the gap, Ter Stegen could be on his way to a new role and a clean break from a crowded goalkeeping picture at Camp Nou. If they cannot, the reported agreement will remain only that — a willingness to move, waiting on the money to make it real.
