Andrea Radrizzani has claimed Leeds United will know if Barcelona can pay for Raphinha on September 2. The Whites agreed to sell their star Brazilian to the Spanish giants in July despite the ongoing financial concerns at the Camp Nou.
Leeds had already reached an agreement with Chelsea over Raphinha but the 25-year-old was determined to hold out for his dream move to Barcelona. It took several weeks for the two clubs to strike a deal as Leeds refused to allow Barcelona to negotiate a fee lower than that of Chelsea.
In the end, Leeds’ patience in negotiations paid off as they were able to come to an agreement with Barcelona similar to that of the structure of Chelsea’s deal, which Radrizzani revealed was the ‘best’.
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He told the Athletic : “We had interest from Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona. The best deal was with Chelsea, but at the end the deal with Barcelona is pretty much the same as the one we structured with Chelsea.
“It took time, it was hard, we had to manage well and as I said I would rather not sell but I didn’t have a choice.
Despite the sale having gone through, Radrizzani admitted he is puzzled as to how Barcelona have managed to find the money for Raphinha given their financial predicament. He claims Leeds will find out on September 2 if Barcelona can pay for the deal and if not, there will be a ‘global case’.
He said: “No I don’t know the behind the scenes and suddenly how they found the money and how it works, it is not clear.
“I will tell you on the second of September, if not we will have a global case on all the media in the world about Barcelona.”
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