Leeds United's real position on Barcelona Raphinha debt is revealed after report emerges in Spain — YEP 9/10/24

By Graham Smyth

Barcelona may still owe money over the £50m transfer of Raphinha but they are no longer in debt to Leeds United, despite reports in Spain.

SPORT have suggested that the Catalan club remain in debt to Leeds to the tune of €559,000 in the short term and almost €42m in the long-term. Raphinha made the long-anticipated move to the LaLiga giants in July 2022, signing a five-year deal and securing Leeds a sum of £50m with potential add-ons amounting to a further £5m.

The Brazilian international winger has shone this season in Spain with five goals and five assists in just nine league outings. He has worn the captain's armband three times, including in a Champions League win over BSC Young Boys. Raphinha celebrated by scoring one and setting up another in the 5-0 rout.

But while his stock has arguably never been higher, Leeds are not due a windfall from the 27-year-old. Club sources have told the YEP that Barcelona do not owe them an outstanding debt for Raphinha. It is possible however that the current LaLiga leaders may well owe a creditor for money secured in order to purchase him and that is why their June 2024 financial report listed a debt with regards to Raphinha. They may also owe smaller amounts to Sporting de Portugal, Stade de Rennais and Vitoria.

While there was never any doubt over Raphinha's desire to move to Camp Nou, Barcelona's ability to make the deal in the summer of 2022 was uncertain. Former Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani later claimed that an agreement had been reached with Chelsea to sell the winger to them, before a change of plan and an apparent change in Barcelona's circumstances.

He told The Athletic: "We couldn’t deal with Barcelona because they weren’t in a position to deal. So we made a deal with Chelsea because the player wanted to go and he was open to listening to offers from Premier League clubs. For me, it was done [Raphinha to Chelsea], and when I have a deal my word is my word. I felt ashamed to go back to Todd Boehly and change my position."

Radrizzani also fired off a warning that Leeds would take action if Barcelona did not stump up the cash. "I don't know about behind the scenes and how they suddenly found the money and now it works, it's not clear," he said in the same interview. "Look, I'll tell you on September 2. If not, we will have a global case on all the media in the world about Barcelona."

According to their last set of accounts, Leeds were owed sums totalling £11.5m that were due to be paid by July 1 and a further £5m in longer-term debt, but only £2m of the money owed to the Whites was for transfers. The accounts also showed that Leeds themselves owed a total of £190m in outstanding transfer fees. Chairman Paraag Marathe addressed the debt situation this summer, insisting it was factored into their purchase of the club from Radrizzani.

Marathe said: “The outbound transfer payments we have to make were already contemplated as went through the transaction last summer and that was sort of reflected in the acquisition. We inherited a credit card bill we knew we had to take care of and we made sure we had the investment we needed up front and capital commitment to make sure we were covered on that and able to manage that properly.

“What is not in those numbers reported is some of the inbound payments – for example, our sales of Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra, there’s some inbound transfer payments coming from that. The net is already a bit lower but we have what we need to be competitive and we’ll shape the squad accordingly. We have what we need to compete among the best.”