“Very serious” -Leeds United sold one Of their Best player £17.1m…..
“Very serious” – Deco: Leeds United nearly sold Raphinha for £17.1m in 2022
“Very serious” – Deco: Leeds United nearly sold Raphinha for £17.1m in 2022
The Whites being in the Championship largely is down to the ownership that was in charge during the club’s time in the Premier League, with transfers in and out of the club not good enough.Replacing Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha with multiple poor signings was always going to end badly, but Leeds losing the Brazilian could have been a whole lot worse
The summer window after Leeds stayed up on the final day against Brentford – thanks in part to Raphinha’s ice-cold penalty – was inevitably all about the Brazilian leaving.
He was too good for a side that narrowly avoided relegation, and deserved an elite move which was on the cards with constant updates on that front.
Despite Leeds agreeing a fee with Chelsea that could have risen to £65million, the club eventually accepted Barcelona’s lower offer of a £55million package, seeing the player make a dream move to the Camp Nou.
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Raphinha’s agent at the time was Deco, who is now the sporting director of Barcelona, and he has commented on the Brazilian’s move to the Catalan giants, to which he revealed a clause in his contract while at Leeds.
He said this via FourFourTwo:
“Actually, I didn’t push hard. You know, club presidents don’t usually tell the whole story. Raphinha was very serious and professional with Leeds.
“He had a clause that if they were relegated, his price would drop to €20m (£17.1m), and he was the best player when Leeds needed him most – he ran the most, worked the hardest, and I, as his agent, would be incapable of influencing any player for my own benefit.
“Leeds wanted to sell Raphinha. Then bids came in, even bigger than Barcelona’s. The owner of Chelsea [Todd Boehly] called me and insisted a lot, putting pressure on me – he really wanted to sign Raphinha. But I didn’t push hard for Raphinha to leave Leeds. It was all by mutual agreement.”
Leeds dodged absolute chaos with Raphinha by staying up
We have to be thankful that we weren’t relegated in that summer, as losing Raphinha for the price we signed him for would have caused absolute meltdown.
The fact we got £55million seems like an undervalued signing from Barcelona anyway, as much as he’s been underwhelming since joining Xavi’s side.
As for Deco, it’s interesting that he says he had no say in convincing Raphinha to leave and where to go, given Fabrizio Romano was linking him to Barcelona from March onwards, and he’s ended up becoming their sporting director.
It’s fine that it happened, as he got his deserved move, but there’s no point hiding the fact that constant links will have come from somewhere.