FC Barcelona and the English Leeds United have reached this Wednesday an agreement in principle for the transfer of the Brazilian Raphael Dias Belloli ‘Raphinha’ to the Barça club, waiting for the player to pass the medical examination.
The winger becomes the third signing of the Catalan team with a view to the 2022-23 academic year, after the signings of the Danish central defender Andreas Christensen and the Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessie
In a statement, Barcelona made the “principle of agreement” with the English club official, although it did not give details about the duration of the contract or the amounts of the transfer.
As published by the Mundo Deportivo newspaper, the operation will be closed for a fixed 58 million euros, to which another 7 more can be added in variables, and the player would sign until June 30, 2027.
With the arrival of Raphinha, 25, together with the more than likely hiring of Ousmane Dembélé, the Barça first team incorporates individual talent and overflow on the right wing.
Born in Porto Alegre in 1996, the Brazilian international is a skilled one-on-one left-footer and a notable direct free kick taker. He likes to play off the leg to move inside and try shots from the front with his left foot, one of his favorite moves.
Formed in the Avaí quarry, his explosion in European football has been cooked in the last five years. He crossed the Atlantic in 2016 to sign for Portuguese club Vitoria de Guimaraes. Two years later, Sporting de Portugal paid 6.5 million to get his services.
His career at the Lisbon club was short. In the summer of 2019, Rennes disbursed 21 million euros, which a year later transferred to the Brazilian winger at Leeds trained by the Argentine Marcelo Bielsa.
In his two seasons in English football, Raphinha has played 67 games in which he has scored 17 goals and provided 12 assists. In his last campaign, he was a key player for Leeds to save the category thanks to his 11 goals and three assists.
His remarkable performance in the Premier League has allowed him to make the leap to the Brazilian team. His debut under the direction of Tite dates back to October 7, 2021 against Venezuela. Since then he already has 9 caps for Brazil and 3 goals.
Deco, a former Barcelona soccer player and the Brazilian’s agent, has played an important role in making Raphinha’s signing a reality. A few weeks ago, he met at the Camp Nou offices with the entity’s sports leadership to channel the negotiations in the interest of other clubs such as Chelsea.
