Barcelona might make a surprise in the 2022 summer transfer market. The Spanish League giants want to sign Leeds United winger, Raphinha. This means that Barca will compete with Liverpool to get the player’s signature.
The Brazil international is attracting attention because of his fairly good performance. Naturally, the star is the target and has the potential to leave Elland Road this summer.
In his first two seasons in the Premier League, Raphinha performed so well that he became Leeds United’s favorite player. Since arriving from Ligue 1 club Rennes in 2020, Raphinha has scored 15 goals and made 12 assists from a total of 57 appearances.
But his future has become unclear since Marcelo Bielsa left Elland Road. In addition, Leeds United are struggling to get out of the relegation zone. According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Barcelona hopes to attract Raphinha by using the link of the player’s agent, Deco. The last mentioned name is a former Barca midfielder.
However, so far Barca have not established communication with Deco about the transfer plan. The club’s officials are still waiting and seeing the final situation, whether Leeds stay or be relegated from the Premier League.
The 25-year-old player is under contract with Leeds until the summer of 2024. But if Jesse Marsch’s team is relegated, Raphinha will almost certainly leave and his market value will drop from 40 million euros to around 30 million euros. In addition, Raphinha joined Leeds on October 2020 for an undisclosed fee reported to be in the region of £17 million, or about 20 million euros. Although in waiting, it seems that his future is quite bright considering two giant clubs are admiring him.
For Barcelona, looking for players with “low” prices is the most realistic thing. Because Azulgrana’s balance sheet is sick. Based on the latest LaLiga release which was presented on Monday (14/3/2022), Barca’s transfer limit is -144 million euros. This figure comes after Barca landed four players at Camp Nou in January 2022, namely Dani Alves, Ferran Torres, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adama Traore. In fact, last year Barca had a transfer limit of 97 million euros for transfers.
