Barcelona may add more players in the summer transfer window after raising more money.
According to club president Joan Laporta, Barcelona is working on registering its new summer arrivals after generating €100 million (£84 million/$102 million) from the sale of a 25% stake in Barca Studios. Jules Kounde, who cost €60 million (£40 million/$50 million), is the latest in a line of high-profile additions to Camp Nou this summer for the Spanish team.
Through an extensive crowdfunding campaign, Barcelona was able to minimize their terrible financial difficulties throughout the course of the summer, which allowed them to sign free agents Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Robert Lewandowski, and Raphinha from Bayern Munich.
Laporta’s Reactions To Barcelona New Signings
Barcelona has sold a quarter of Barca Studios, the entity in responsible for coordinating the creation and marketing of the team’s new media, to Socios.com.
Socios is a website that offers “fan tokens” for certain clubs, enabling fans to participate in team decision-making.
The club would utilize the extra cash, according to President Laporta, to sign players like Kounde and Lewandowski, he said during a press conference.
“You know that we have proceeded to sell 25 per cent of Barca Studios for €100 million to socio.com,” he said as Kounde was unveiled as their newest signing.
“If we add up all these amounts that represent a significant income and we understand that we are doing our homework and we will be able to register the players.”
He added: “We are optimistic. We are doing everything possible to register [the new signings]. I hope that the interpretation that we make is the same as that of La Liga.”
Blaugrana suits you well, @jkeey4 😉👍 pic.twitter.com/JDE9MtcoIU
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 1, 2022
Barcelona’s Other Economic levers Are?
The latest agreement is not the first that Barca has made to raise additional funds this summer to pay down the €1.2 billion (£1.1 billion/$1.5 billion) debt they declared earlier this year.
The Camp Nou club initially raised €267 million (£229 million/$277 million) with the sale of 10% of its La Liga broadcast rights to global investment group Sixth Street Partners, followed by a further 15% to raise €315 million (£268 million/$320 million).
These moves enabled them to finalize the €59 million (£50 million/$59 million) signing of Raphinha from Leeds and the €50 million (£42 million/$51 million) transfer of Lewandowski from Bayern Munich.
Additionally, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen were bought on free transfers from Chelsea and AC Milan, respectively, and Ousmane Dembele consented to sign a new deal.
Selling 49.9% of Barca Licensing and Merchandising (BLM), the company in charge of the team’s retail and marketing, would be one more attempt Barca might make to raise additional money.
Who Else Might Barca Bring In This Season?
Throughout the summer, the Camp Nou team has been linked with a deal for Manchester City star Bernardo Silva.
Laporta responded when asked about Barcelona’s potential ability to sign the Portugal international: “First we have to register the signed players. Then we’ll see what we can do if the coach asks for more reinforcements.”
Laporta and coach Xavi both acknowledged that they want Lionel Messi to return to Catalunya, therefore the possibility of bringing him back to the Spanish team has lately come up once more.\
However, Joan Laporta refrained from confirming a move for him on Monday, saying: “I’m not going to comment on it because he’s a PSG player. I’m not going to comment any more. I think Barca has a moral debt with Leo and we’ll see, we remember him.”
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