Valencia get green light to replace crocked Diakhaby as La Liga frees up squad spot
La Liga has approved Valencia's request to remove Mouctar Diakhaby from their squad registration, opening the door for multiple January signings.
Valencia have received a timely boost in their January transfer plans as La Liga has officially freed up Mouctar Diakhaby’s registration, allowing the club to pursue multiple signings without waiting for other departures.
Registration relief for Los Che
Following the serious hamstring injury that required surgery and will keep the Guinea-born French defender sidelined for over four months, Valencia submitted medical documentation to both La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation. The club has now been granted permission to remove Diakhaby from their registered squad list while maintaining all terms of his contract.
This administrative move serves two crucial purposes for Valencia:
- It frees up squad registration spots (specifically numbers 2 and 4)
- It allows the club to use 40% of Diakhaby’s salary towards their financial fair play margin
The latter point is particularly significant as Valencia had been operating close to their financial limits and needed additional wiggle room to register new players.
Corberán confirms multiple targets
Valencia manager Carlos Corberán had already tipped his hand about the club’s intentions earlier this week, stating in a press conference before the Burgos match that they had “initiated proceedings to request Diakhaby’s deregistration because he will miss the entire season.”
Interestingly, Diakhaby’s name has already disappeared from Valencia’s professional squad list (numbers 1-25) on La Liga’s official website as of Thursday evening.
Centre-back search already underway
Even before Diakhaby’s injury, Valencia had been in the market for defensive reinforcements, with particular interest in left-footed centre-backs. Corberán initially described signing a central defender as “priority” before upgrading his assessment to “urgent” after the severity of Diakhaby’s injury became clear.
With the recent arrival of Sadiq and now Diakhaby’s deregistration, Valencia have multiple squad numbers available and appear poised to make several January additions as they look to strengthen their squad for the remainder of the season.
This flexibility couldn’t have come at a better time for the club, who’ve been working on potential reinforcements since December and can now proceed without the complications of orchestrating player sales first.