Published on : 16/07/2022 – 16:10
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Barcelona (AFP) – The Golden Shoe soon at Barça! With the imminent arrival of the Polish Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich’s attacking figure for eight years and the continent’s top scorer, FC Barcelona continues to strengthen with the ambition of returning to the forefront of the European scene.
The transfer of the summer? While negotiations dragged on for weeks, the two clubs managed to reach an oral agreement overnight from Friday to Saturday, the Bavarian club confirmed on Saturday.
According to the press, Barça will pay 45 M EUR + 5 M EUR in variables to Bayern to release Lewandowski, 33, from his last year of contract, and hire him for four years.
This is the fourth summer transfer for FC Barcelona, after Franck Kessié (AC Milan) and Andreas Christensen (Chelsea), who arrived free, and Raphinha (Leeds), recruited for 70 M EUR. Not to mention the contract extension of Ousmane Dembélé, who is committed until 2024.
A very generous transfer window for a club which suffered from an abysmal debt, exceeding one billion euros in the long term, a few months ago.
Barça, new rich?
Barça played on several fronts to quickly obtain liquidity and thus be active on the market: a loan of EUR 595m from Goldman Sachs, a sponsorship agreement with Spotify for around EUR 435m, and the sale of 10% of income from television rights to the American company Sixth Street for the next 25 years in exchange for 207.5 M EUR.
Two other levers can still be activated by Barça to obtain cash quickly: the club is close to selling another 15 percent of its TV rights income for around 330 million additional euros according to the press, and is also considering selling 49.9 % of its franchise Barça Licensing and Merchandising, a will of the leaders who obtained democratic support with the approval of the socios (supporters-shareholders) in mid-June.
In the meantime, he is an outstanding striker on the way to joining Xavi’s locker room. Double European top scorer, Lewandowski, who will turn 34 on August 21, can bring all his experience to supervise a very young group, carried by Ansu Fati, Pedri, Gavi and other Ferran Torres.
Debut in the United States
This season again, “Lewy” completed the exercise with 42 goals in 50 matches in all competitions, including 35 goals in 34 league matches and 13 achievements in 10 Champions League matches. He concludes his Bavarian stage with an impressive record of 344 goals in 375 matches.
He has repeatedly shown his desire to leave Bayern and his desire to join Barça, which appealed to Blaugrana supporters. Although he resumed training with Bayern a few days ago, the Polish striker arrived late each time, except this Saturday, when he took the opportunity to bid farewell to his teammates, according to the German newspaper Picture.
The official presentation of the Bayern squad then took place at 3:00 p.m., without Lewandowski. The centre-forward is expected to join the team in the United States, where Barca are due to play a series of friendlies, the Catalan press have informed. It is there that Lewandowski could put on the Blaugrana jersey for the first time.
The striker’s official presentation to Barcelona is not expected to take place until the team returns to Catalonia in early August.
© 2022 AFP
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