Barcelona look set to take their summer transfer spending past £100m despite being mired in debt, after Bayern Munich confirmed an agreement to sell their striker Robert Lewandowski to the Nou Camp club.
Lewandowski, whose contract was due to expire next summer, will leave Bayern in a €50m (£42m) deal. The 33-year-old will sign a four-year contract worth the same as his transfer fee.
He will become Barca’s second big-name signing of pre-season after Raphinha joined the club from Leeds United in a £50m switch earlier this week.
Manager Xavi Hernandez has been keen to strengthen his squad following the side’s disappointing second-place finish in La Liga and exit from the Champions League group stage last season.
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“We have a verbal agreement from Barcelona. It’s good for both sides that we have clarity,” Bayern president Herbert Hainer said. “Robert is a very deserving player, he has won everything with us. We are incredibly grateful to him.”
Barca hope that in signing Lewandowski they can revive the goal threat lost when Lionel Messi walked away from the club last summer. But the deal will leave many stumped as to how Barcelona can afford Lewandowski and Raphinha when they have so much debt.
How can Barcelona sign players?
Barcelona have struggled to match the spending pace of the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and rivals Real Madrid in recent seasons as their debts spiralled to £1bn.
Previous president Josep Maria Bartomeu departed in 2020 after six successful years at the Nou Camp, but with the club groaning under debt. That was made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic that cost the club millions of euros in lost matchday ticket sales.
The last two summers have seen Barca tighten their spending under returning president Joan Laporta, but not overly so. They managed to qualify for next season’s Champions League but took a £50m hit on Ferran Torres and the big wages of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to do so.
They have been spending more than they were earning. Much more. And at the start of this year it became apparent the club needed cash fast. They had already loaned out Antoine Griezmann and Miralem Pjanic to ease the wage bill the previous summer. And La Liga’s Financial Fair Play rules meant Barca could not make any new player signings – even free deals – unless they raised money in other ways.
Indeed, debt in itself isn’t necessarily a problem. The issue is FFP.
Remarkably, Barcelona’s salary limit – which covers transfer fees, amortisations and wages – was €-144m. That means they needed to overhaul this before they can spend again. Serving the debt of previous transfers and a spiralling wage bill means signing players is near-impossible.
Barcelona are the only Spanish club with a negative salary limit. To bring it into the black, and therefore free up opportunities to spend, they need to raise money.
Selling Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United doesn’t yet seem like a viable option, largely because the Dutchman reportedly wants to stay. Other players have taken pay cuts to drive down the club’s wage bill under the La Liga cap, and are now owed millions by the club that they may never get back.
So, to make the signings of Raphinha and Lewandowski possible, Barca have had to raise “extraordinary income” through sponsorship deals, agreements with investment funds and selling players.
The club can use 1/3 of any money raised this way to pay for new players. And so Laporta agreed to sell 10 per cent of the team’s Spanish league television rights for the next 25 years in exchange for $207.5m (£176m).
That cash in the bank appears to have got Raphinha’s transfer fee and his wages under the FFP limit. But getting Lewandowski will still require some accounting trickery in the halls of the Nou Camp. If De Jong doesn’t play ball and rejects a move to Old Trafford then Barca may have to find another way to get the Lewandowski deal over the line.
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The club is expected to generate more than £10m from their four-game pre-season tour of the United States this summer. However, Xavi was unable to join his players as they flew over the Atlantic on Saturday afternoon after being refused a US visa due to “travel activities he carried out when managing Al-Sadd”, according to TV3.
Barca have also signed Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen on free transfers from Milan and Chelsea respectively, but neither can be officially registered because of the club’s salary limits. Laporta also hopes to bring in Cesar Azpilicueta, and perhaps Bernardo Silva and Jules Kounde to the club too.
What Barcelona will get from Lewandowski
Assuming Lewandowski’s move happens and he can be registered in this transfer window, the Poland international’s arrival will be gratefully received.
Lewandowski scored 312 goals in 384 Bundesliga games for Bayern and previous club Borussia Dortmund. He hit 35 goals in 34 appearances last season to become the Bundesliga’s leading scorer for the seventh time overall.
Barcelona’s top scorers were Memphis Depay and Aubameyang with 13 goals each last campaign. Aubameyang only arrived in January from Arsenal.
Lewandowski helped Bayern win the 2020 Champions League, after they humiliated Barcelona 8-2 in the one-off quarter-final that summer. He scored the sixth in Lisbon that evening.
Were he to leave Germany, Lewandowski will depart having won 10 Bundesliga titles (two at Dortmund), four German Cups and a Club World Cup.
Only the dominance of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo has likely stopped Lewandowski from receiving more individual accolades.
But Lewandowski said in late May that “my story with Bayern Munich is over” after contract extension talks with Bayern broke down. He had one more season left on his deal with Bayern.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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