Barcelona paid $80 million for him, now they're letting him go for much less

Barcelona are struggling lately. After a good start to the season in which they maintained the level they had been at during La Liga 2022/23 in which they were champions, as the weeks went by the performances got poorer and poorer. In fact, they have received a lot of criticism for the defeats against Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk.

The dissatisfaction of the fans was clear this Sunday in the match against Alaves. They went into halftime trailing 1-0 and the crowd at the Estadio Olimpico Lluis Companys in Montjuic dismissed the team with whistles and gestures of reprobation. Fortunately, in the second half Robert Lewandowski netted twice and they secured a 2-1 victory.

With this scenario, the club's chiefs are worried. In the last few transfer windows they have spent a lot of money on signing players who are now not performing up to expectations. One example is Raphinha. The Brazilian winger arrived from Leeds in 2022 for $60 million and had a good 2022/23 season. However, his level dropped a lot this year and he lost his place in the team.

According to Sport newspaper, this has caused internal debates at Barcelona about what is the best thing to do with the player. Some, like sporting director Deco, are confident in his potential and believe he can recover. Others believe that the best thing to do is to negotiate his sale to another club, even if it is for less money than they paid for him. Newcastle and Chelsea are two Premier League teams that have been interested in him, while he has also been targeted from Saudi Arabia.

Now he will have a long journey

Raphinha was called up to the Brazil national team for the matches against Colombia and Argentina for the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. In Barcelona they believe that this may help him to get away from the pressures of European soccer and that on his return he may be able to show better performances.