Barcelona still owes more than £35 million for Raphinha’s transfer from Leeds United two years ago.
That is the opinion of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively informed Football Insider that the West Yorkshire club has already received the funds from a finance company as part of the agreement.
Raphinha, 27, signed with Barcelona in July 2022 for an initial fee of £49 million, with up to £6 million in future add-ons.
However, the Catalan club’s latest records for 2023-24 show that they still owe a finance business little over €42 million (£35 million) on the transfer.
They also owe Manchester City €26 million (£22 million) from the transaction that brought Ferran Torres, 24, to Camp Nou in January 2022.
Leeds United have already received Raphinha’s money.
Borson revealed Leeds will not be concerned about the Raphinha money, having previously received it via a loan business.
He told Football Insider: “Barcelona is currently financially troubled, so in terms of how they have been doing player deals over the last few years, they wanted to pay on a delayed basis.”
“It is common, but I believe the extent of it in Barcelona is slightly unusual, and it is not limited to Ferran Torres.”
“Torres is a player who signed in January 2022, and they still owe €26 million (£22 million), which I believe is almost half the amount, so they have been paying slowly.
“If you look at a player who was signed at the end of that season by Raphinha, they don’t really start paying Raphinha’s money to Leeds until the fiscal year beginning June 30, 2025.
“They only pay €560,000 (£466,000) this year, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025, whereas they owe €42 million (£35 million) the following year.”
“Leeds don’t care since they have factored their right to collect that money into a finance company, which effectively means Leeds received the money upfront and it is the finance companies’ receivable from Barcelona to worry about.
“Leeds have got their money, but it just shows that Barcelona wanted these players but couldn’t pay for them, so they had to push out the obligation to move the payment as far as possible.”
