Finance expert drops claim on Leeds United, Raphinha situation involving Barcelona | OneFootball

The Brazilian winger has started to flourish at Barca this season.

Financial expert Stefan Borson has said that Barcelona still have to pay £35 million of the fee they agreed with Leeds United to sign Raphinha in the summer of 2022, but he added that the Championship side have already got their money from the deal.

It's always nice to see a player who was a fan favourite at a club leave for good money to a bigger club and then go on to succeed there. You sort of have that sense of pride. 'We had him once,' is maybe what you'd tell your family and friends who aren't as football mad.

That 'good for him' feeling is being felt by Leeds fans at the moment, as they're getting to watch Raphinha, someone who they gave a platform to perform on the biggest stage, succeed at the top end of European football.

In the last week, he has scored a hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and provided a goal and an assist to help Barcelona beat Real Madrid 4-0 in El Clásico.

The Brazilian winger left Elland Road to join Barca for an initial fee of £49 million, which could then rise to £55 million, according to Sky Sports. It turns out, a lot of that money is still to be paid.

Barcelona still owe £35 million of Raphinha fee

More than two years on from signing the now 27-year-old, Barca are still yet to pay off the deal they agreed with Leeds for Raphinha. Borson, a finance expert, has said that they are to pay £35 million of the 2022 fee next year.

Don't worry, or get excited, Leeds fans; this won't affect your club. They already got their money up front - it's a financial company that Barca are indebted to.

Borson told Football Insider: "Barcelona are financially troubled at the moment and, therefore, in terms of the way they have been doing deals for players 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 because Leeds have factored their right to collect that money to a finance company, which effectively means Leeds got the money upfront and it’s 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."

Selling Raphinha was a great deal for Leeds

It's always tough to lose a player of such quality. No matter how much money you recoup, there's never any guarantee that you will be able to recreate what they gave you.

But, with that said, a club like Leeds will always find it hard to turn down the opportunity of a potential £39 million profit on a player. They only paid Rennes £16 million for him in 2020. Turning that into potentially £55 million in less than two years is a no-brainer.

Did they spend that money wisely? Well, the fact that they were relegated the season after they lost Raphinha strongly suggests not.

Even with that level of hindsight, it's hard to argue that what Leeds did - selling Raphinha to Barcelona - wasn't the right thing to do. It was, both for them and for him.