Raphinha left Leeds United in the summer of 2022, and his departure contributed to the club’s relegation the following season.
The Whites’ current position in the Championship is partly due to the ownership that was in charge during the club’s tenure in the Premier League, with insufficient moves in and out.
Replacing Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha with a slew of terrible acquisitions was bound to fail, but Leeds losing the Brazilian might have been even worse.
Leeds lost Raphinha for £55 million to Barcelona.
Leeds stayed up on the penultimate day against Brentford, due in part to Raphinha’s ice-cold penalty, therefore the summer window was unavoidably all about the Brazilian leaving.
He was too good for a team that nearly survived relegation and deserved an elite move, as evidenced by periodic updates on that front.
Despite arranging a deal with Chelsea that might have climbed to £65 million, Leeds ultimately accepted Barcelona’s cheaper offer of a £55 million package, resulting in the player’s dream move to the Camp Nou.
Leeds may only have got £17.1 million for Raphinha.
Raphinha’s agent at the time was Deco, who is now Barcelona’s sporting director, and he has spoken about the Brazilian’s move to the Catalan giants, revealing a condition in his contract while at Leeds.
He said this on FourFourTwo:
“Actually, I did not push hard. Club presidents rarely tell the complete picture. Raphinha was quite serious and professional with Leeds.
“He had a condition in his contract that if they were relegated, his price would decrease to €20 million (£17.1 million), and he was the best player when Leeds needed him the most – he ran the most and worked the hardest, and I, as his agent, would be unable to influence any player for my own gain.
“Leeds wanted to sell Raphinha. Then bids came in, even larger than Barcelona’s. Chelsea’s owner [Todd Boehly] called and placed a lot of pressure on me; he genuinely wanted to sign Raphinha. But I didn’t urge Raphinha to leave Leeds. “It was all mutual agreement.”
Leeds avoided complete may have with Raphinha by keeping up.
We should be grateful that we were not relegated that summer, since losing Raphinha for the price we paid for him would have been a complete disaster.
Despite the fact that he has been mediocre since joining Xavi’s team, the £55 million we paid for him appears to be an undervalued signing from Barcelona.
As for Deco, it’s intriguing that he maintains he had no say in pushing Raphinha to go and where to go, given Fabrizio Romano was linking him to Barcelona from March onwards, and he’s ended up being their sporting director.
It’s fine that it happened, as he got his deserved move, but there’s no point hiding the fact that constant links will have come from somewhere.
