If FC Barcelona is in a very complicated financial situation, it can blame itself. Since the summer of 2017 and the forced, and unscheduled, sale of Neymar to PSG for € 222 million, it is a succession of bad choices that has been made on the transfer market, with players bought a fortune for a return largely insufficient. We are of course thinking of the two most expensive items ever purchased by the Catalan club, Ousmane Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho. And the Brazilian has not finished weighing on Barça’s finances.
Recruited for € 120m + € 40m bonus in January 2018, the 28-year-old attacking midfielder is the most expensive recruit in club history. To this is added the 13 M € of his colossal annual salary. The amortization of his transfer is still far from being completed (still € 50m in 2021) and Barça was able to note with regret that the loan to Bayern Munich last season had not resulted in the exercise of the option. purchase of 120 M €. Not crazy, the Bavarians …
A bonus to avoid …
A few days ago, the Catalan media Now explained that the Barcelona management had decided to place the player on the transfer list during the winter transfer window, in order to reduce, if possible, the wage bill. But it’s not just the salary that Barca want to avoid paying. As the newspaper reveals Sport, one of the bonuses inserted in the transfer by Liverpool could soon materialize. Indeed, Barça will have to pay an additional € 20 million to the Reds when Philippe Coutinho reaches the bar of 100 matches played with the Blaugranas.
Today, the number of matches played stands at 90. More than 10 and it is 20 M € which will fly away. This is not nothing, on the contrary, for Barça, with finances clearly in the red. Depay could not be bought last summer for a sum in these waters, that is to say … Is this also the reason which explains the lower use of the Brazilian in the rotation in recent weeks? Barça seems in any case ready to do everything to avoid paying this bonus which falls badly …
