Barcelona's economic Vice President Eduard Romeu has confirmed that Barcelona need to find £428 million to be saved from financial turmoil which will hugely impact their business dealings this summer. The Catalan giants have been linked with a number of players, including Robert Lewandowski, and more importantly to Leeds United fans, Raphinha.
But Romeu has stated that the club continue to register huge losses and must find a large sum of money or could be forced into difficult decisions. Romeu has also claimed that the financial difficulties are 'heredity' after years of financial mismanagement under their former president Josep Bartomeu and his predecessors. In 2021, the club announced that they were in £1.15billion debt.
This has registered to their on-the-field squad, too, with Barcelona struggling to retain certain players - including losing their greatest player of all-time and arguably the best player the sport has ever seen, in Lionel Messi joining PSG last summer.
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The latest announcement means that Barcelona may once again struggle to spend big in the transfer window, but rather looking to bring in free agents and low-cost options whilst rebuilding their squad.
This could hugely hamper their pursuit of Raphinha.
Barcelona have been keen on the Brazilian for a number of months now, while Liverpool could also reignite their long-standing interest with Sadio Mane set to leave this summer.
It had looked almost certain that Raphinha was set to leave in the coming months, however recent developments suggest that this could be a long-running saga that could result in him staying. Barcelona's move for Raphinha now looks as though it hinged on Leeds being relegated from the Premier League so that they could take advantage of his £25 million release clause.
However, with that no longer the case and Leeds instead demanding in excess of £60 million for their talisman, Barcelona's interest now hangs in the balance.
