Barcelona still owe more than £35million as part of the transaction that saw Raphinha join the club 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 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 think the extent of it with Barcelona is slightly unusual, and it’s not just Ferran Torres.
“Torres is a player who signed in January 2022 and they still owe €26milllion (£22million), which I think is about half the fee, so they have been paying slowly.
“If you look at a player that was signed at the end of that season in Raphinha, they don’t really start paying Raphinha’s fee to Leeds until the year commencing 30 June 2025.
“They only pay €560,000 (£466,000) in the year now from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025, whereas next year they owe €42million (£35million).
“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.”
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