<
>

Barcelona register Jules Kounde a month after signing defender from Sevilla

play
Kounde officially unveiled as a Barcelona player (0:53)

Jules Kounde says he wants to achieve very high goals with Barcelona in his first press conference for the club. (0:53)

Barcelona have finally registered Jules Kounde with LaLiga, a month after signing the defender from Sevilla, meaning he will be available to play against Real Valladolid on Sunday.

Kounde, 23, arrived at Camp Nou in a €55 million deal in July but could not be registered to play due to a lack of room in Barcelona's LaLiga-imposed squad spending limit.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.)

After the club sold off assets worth over €700m, they were able to field their other summer signings -- Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessie -- in their first game of the season, a 0-0 draw with Rayo Vallecano on Aug. 13.

Kounde was forced to miss out and Barcelona were unable to improve the situation in time for matchday two, when the LaLiga giants won 4-1 at Real Sociedad last Sunday.

The club have been looking to free up further space on their wage bill, working on deals to secure the departures of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Memphis Depay, while defender Samuel Umtiti joined Lecce on loan on Thursday.

Barcelona's busy summer in the market -- spending €160m in transfer fees on Lewandowski, Raphinha and Kounde, despite the club's restricted finances -- was followed by a race against time to be able to register those signings before the transfer window closes on Sept. 1.

The club sold 25% of their future income from television rights to the investment firm Sixth Street, and 49% of Barca Studios to fan token platform Socios and production company Orpheus Media, in order to generate funds to help resolve the issue.