Jules Koundé, with a Barcelona polo shirt. /
Mercado
The Barça club will pay Sevilla 60 million euros for the young French central defender, who arrived in Barcelona this Thursday to undergo a medical examination and be officially announced
After managing to bind Jules Koundé definitively, the French defender left Sevilla’s concentration in Lagos (Portugal) on Thursday to travel to Barcelona, where he arrived in the early afternoon to undergo a medical examination and be announced as a new Barça player change of 60 million euros (50 fixed plus 10 in variables). Koundé, the most expensive transfer in the history of Sevilla, said goodbye to his teammates in the Seville team’s locker room to appear in Barcelona and start a new stage at Barça. In the team led by Xavi, Koundé will significantly strengthen the center of the defense, currently represented by seven players, with Piqué, Araujo, Eric García, Christensen, Umtiti and Mingueza, although the latter two have practically both feet outside the club.
Koundé was a priority target for Xavi and, given that the young defender has preferred the Barça team to Chelsea, Barcelona will be able to count on one of the most coveted central defenders in European football, who also stands out as a right back. The former Sevilla player, a Barça player for five seasons, was the last to arrive in Barcelona to strengthen the Catalan team, but the club chaired by Joan Laporta still hopes to incorporate the two full-backs he intends to sign in this summer market: Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso .
After snatching Koundé from Chelsea, both of them or just one of them may come to Barça, but the culé entity is optimistic that the London club will sell, in the same ‘pack’, the Navarrese right-back and the Madrid left-back for less than 15 million. Both Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso are in the final season of their contract with Chelsea.
With Koundé, for the moment, there are already five Barcelona signings for next season, after Kessié, Christensen – the Ivorian and the Dane have arrived for free – Lewandowski and Raphinha, who have cost 60 million each. It is the same amount that Barça will have to pay for a young central defender (23 years old) who has defended Sevilla for the last three seasons, after serving in the Girondins de Bordeaux. Sevilla paid 25 million euros for him, also becoming, in 2019, the most expensive signing of the Andalusian club.
