Barcelona fans call for €40m Coutinho sale

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 17 May 2021 15:19 BST
• 2 min read

Barcelona supporters have voted in their droves for Philippe Coutinho to be sold at the end of the season to Everton.

Big things were expected of the Brazilian when he made a controversial move to Barca from Liverpool in January 2018.

The Blaugrana splashed out an astronomical €120 million – plus up to €40m in bonuses – for Coutinho just months after their world record sale of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain.

READ MORE: The 50 biggest transfers ever – where does Coutinho feature?

However, Coutinho has proven to be one of the biggest flops in Barca’s history.

He struggled to replicate the brilliant form he showed at Liverpool during his first 18 months in Catalunya.

This led to him being loaned out to Bayern Munich last season but, despite winning the Champions League, he was only a bit-part player in their triumph.

Coutinho: Statistics in 2020/21

After returning to Barcelona for the 2020/21 campaign, he has fallen even further down the pecking order.

He has made just 12 La Liga appearances – eight of them starts – and scored only two goals in all competitions.

Coutinho is hugely unpopular with Barcelona fans and this was demonstrated once again in a poll run by El Mundo Deportivo.

The newspaper asked Barca supporters if they approved of the club selling Coutinho to Everton this summer.

The 28-year-old has been heavily linked with a €40 million transfer to Carlo Ancelotti’s side in what would represent a return to Merseyside for the playmaker.

And the response was emphatic with almost 90 per cent – 89.2% – of Barca fans voting for Coutinho to be sold.

Whether or not Barcelona will be able to get such a transfer fee for a player who will miss the rest of the season through injuries and requires a knee operation is debatable.

Coutinho’s contract at Camp Nou expires in 2023.