Laporta reveals Barcelona’s new €100 million economic lever in Kounde’s presentation
Barcelona are working on registering new summer signings after collecting €100 million (£84 million/$102 million) from the sale of a 25% interest in Barca Studios, according to club president Joan Laporta. Jules Kounde, who cost €60 million (£40 million/$50 million) this summer, is the latest in a long line of new recruits at Camp Nou.
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Barca were able to ameliorate their serious financial troubles during the summer thanks to a big fundraising campaign, enabling them to sign Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich, Raphinha, Franck Kessie, and Andreas Christensen on free transfers.
What has Laporta said about Barcelona’s most recent acquisition?
Socios.com has purchased a fourth of Barca Studios, which controls the development and commercialization of the club’s audiovisual projects.
Socios is a platform that offers “fan tokens” of certain clubs in order to allow fans to influence team choices.
President Laporta said at a news conference that the extra funds would be used to sign players such as Kounde and Lewandowski.
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“You know that we proceeded to sell 25% of Barca Studios to socio.com for €100 million,” he remarked as Kounde was introduced as their newest recruit.
“If we sum up all of these figures, we will have a big revenue and we will be able to register the players if we do our research.”
He continued: “We are hopeful. We’re doing all we can to get [the new signings] registered. I trust that our interpretation is the same as that of La Liga.”
What additional economic levers does Barcelona have?
The latest agreement is not the first in which Barcelona has agreed to generate more funds this summer in order to reduce the €1.2 billion (£1.1 billion/$1.5 billion) debt reported earlier this year.
The Camp Nou club originally collected €267 million (£229 million/$277 million) via the sale of 10% of its La Liga broadcast rights to global investment group Sixth Street Partners, followed by another 15% to generate €315 million (£268 million/$320 million).
These trades enabled them to finalize the €59 million (£50 million/$59 million) acquisition of Raphinha from Leeds and the €50 million (£42 million/$51 million) signing of Lewandowski from Bayern Munich.
Furthermore, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen were joined on free transfers from AC Milan and Chelsea, respectively, while Ousmane Dembele decided to sign a new deal.
Barca might raise more funds by selling 49.9% of Barca Licensing and Merchandising (BLM), the organization in charge of the club’s retail and marketing.
Who else may Barcelona bring in this summer?
Throughout the summer, the Camp Nou club has been linked with a deal for Manchester City star Bernardo Silva.
When asked about the possibility of signing the Portugal international, Laporta said: “We must first register the contracted players. Then we’ll see what we can come up with if the coach requests extra reinforcements.”
The possibility of bringing Lionel Messi back to Spain has lately been mentioned, with both Laporta and coach Xavi admitting that they want him to come to Catalunya.
On Monday, though, the president stopped short of announcing a move for him, saying: “I’m not going to announce anything since he plays for PSG. I’m going to stop commenting. I believe Barca owes Leo a moral responsibility, and we’ll see how we remember him.”