Despite the recent good form of Ousmane Dembele and both Barcelona president Joan Laporta and the player himself leaving the door to a new contract open, the Catalan club seem to be preparing for his departure as a free agent this summer. According to Fabrizio Romano, they are in an advanced stage of talks with Deco, their former midfielder who now represents Leeds United winger Raphinha, over a potential move from Elland Road to the Camp Nou this summer.
The likes of Liverpool and Chelsea were initially credited most heavily with interest in the Brazilian winger. Chelsea’s well-publicized situation, however, is preventing them from making any concrete plans for the upcoming transfer window, and while Liverpool seem to be hesitating, hoping that Mohamed Salah signs a new deal or perhaps contemplating other options, Barcelona appear to be working hard on taking Raphinha to Spain.
The Catalans have their own backup plans, which apparently include Raphinha’s international teammate Antony, but they see the Ajax man as too expensive right now and therefore prefer Raphinha.
Nonetheless, there is still a lot of work to do before the proposed transfer of the 25-year-old gets anywhere close to being done. Once the terms are thrashed out with Deco, Barcelona will still have to deal with Leeds and work out a transfer fee, and those talks haven’t even started yet.
Raphinha’s contract with Leeds is set to run until the summer of 2024, and that probably rules out any possibility of a cut-price deal Barcelona may have been hoping for. Transfermarkt value his quality at €40 million, but Leeds will likely want significantly more than that this summer.
