Although it is a troubling sight to see Barcelona moving many of their youth players on loan or selling them, the space for Halilovic on the first team is just not there right now and given his age, he needs time to grow.
After getting inquiries from the likes of West Ham, Stoke City, and Porto, the Catalans decided that Hamburg would be the best place for the young Croatian.
The deal will cost Hamburg 800k Euros.
Tough to crack
With the addition of Arda Turan, Barcelona already have a stacked midfield. Ivan Rakitic, Andres Iniesta, and Serigo Busquets have the starting roles with Rafinha, Turan, Sergio Roberto and occasionally Mascherano playing a CDM role. That leaves no room for Halilovic, who will get some playing time in Germany.
In his loan contract there is a clause that states that Halilovic must play 60% of Hamburgs games or they will have to pay the Catalans 2.4M. So even if he is not wanted to play, he will.
But even if he is not playing with Barcelona now, they seem keen on wanting him back. With the likes of Iniesta and Busquets getting older, Barcelona need some youth in the team. They have the likes of Munir and Sandro in the team right now and will likely have Halilovic join in the coming years.
Loan army
Barcelona's youth academy is one of the best in world football and many of the players in the ranks are not able to crack into the first team. Halilovic is one of those players who can't make the team and will have to spend some time in Europe elsewhere but getting first team experience else where will help whenever Barcelona decide he is ready to be back.