Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo confirmed that Portuguese international João Cancelo has returned to FC Barcelona after a previous loan spell with the team. Cancelo is considered the second most expensive defender in football history in terms of total money spent on his transfers, following Matthijs de Ligt, whose transfer fees reached around 200 million euros.

Cancelo has played for eight clubs in six different countries during his professional career. His experience with Barcelona was his fifth loan spell. He began his career with Benfica before moving to Valencia, where the Spanish club paid 15 million euros to sign him. He then moved to Inter Milan on loan with an option to buy that was not activated.

He then transferred to Juventus for 40 million euros before signing with Manchester City in a swap deal valued at approximately 65 million euros, where he won the UEFA Champions League in his first season.

Cancelo had a short loan experience at Bayern Munich before moving in the summer of 2024 on loan to Barcelona, then to Saudi club Al Hilal with the same purchase option value, and now he has returned to the Catalan team after a year and a half.

With a total of 145 million euros spent, Cancelo has become the most valuable full-back in football history, surpassed only by defender Matthijs de Ligt between Juventus, Bayern, and Manchester United, according to the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo.