Barcelona have confirmed the signing of Joao Cancelo on loan from Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal. Cancelo's move back to Catalunya, where he spent the 2023-24 season, was initially announced earlier on Tuesday, but the club had to delete all traces of this unveiling as the transfer had not actually been completed yet.Barcelona have been on the lookout for defensive reinforcements during the January transfer window and have decided to reunite with their former full-back Cancelo, who will spend the remainder of the 2025-26 season on loan at Camp Nou."Now it’s official: Joao Cancelo is once again a Barca player. FC Barcelona and Al Hilal Saudi FC have reached an agreement for the loan of the Portuguese full-back until the end of the season. He will wear the number 2 shirt," a club statement read."The signing ceremony took place this Tuesday at the club’s offices and was attended by FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta, first vice-president Rafael Yuste, board member Joan Soler, and Director of the Football Area Anderson Luis de Souza (Deco) along with the player’s family."Barcelona had, in fact, initially announced the return of Cancelo earlier on Tuesday, only for their posts confirming the deal to disappear under mysterious circumstances. Various reports from Spain, first broken by Catalan outlet Mundo Deportivo, claimed there were still pieces of paperwork to be formally exchanged between Barcelona and Al-Hilal before the deal could be rubber-stamped, hence the hasty deletion of this initial confirmation.There was fear among the Barca fanbase that the club had completely missed the mark and that the deal was in doubt, given their recent history of financial problems and constraints. However, Barcelona always seemed confident the issue was minor and that Cancelo would wear their famous red-and-blue again.Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting