Barça paid $145 million for him, now he is worthless and will play in Qatar

Barcelona have been in a serious financial situation for a long time. This is due to the bad decisions of the previous chiefs, who for years spent a lot of money on signing players who then failed to perform up to expectations and left for much less money than they had cost.

This happened, for example, with Ousmane Dembélé. In 2017 Los Blaugranas paid more than $140 million to Borussia Dortmund to buy him, but his level in Spain was far from the one he had had in the Bundesliga. Finally, this summer he left for Paris Saint-Germain in exchange for $50 million.

And worse was the case of Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian player shone at Liverpool, which motivated Barcelona to pay $145 million. Like Dembélé, he arrived at Catalunya in 2017 to replace Neymar, but could never satisfy the fans. That's why he was loaned out, first to Bayern Munich and then to Aston Villa. He finally stayed permanently at the English side, where he signed a contract until 2026. But coach Unai Emery did not consider him a priority, so they tried to negotiate with other clubs this summer.

After negotiations with Real Betis failed, Coutinho agreed to join Al-Duhail of Qatar, who presented him as a star with an official statement saying: "Coutinho is considered one of the distinguished players after he succeeded in making his mark during his previous professional experiences, and his joining the team is a great asset ahead of entering the AFC Champions League fixtures".

He will have company

Al-Duhail's signing of Philippe Coutinho will not be the only major arrival to Qatar this summer. In addition to the Brazilian player, another star is close to agreeing his arrival there: Marco Verratti. According to reports, his signing by Al-Arabi will be confirmed in the next few hours. Paris Saint-Germain will receive almost $50 million for him.