The staggering cost of Pjanic's doomed 18 month spell at Barcelona
FT Desk
- 10 Feb 2022 21:31 GMT
- 7 min read
Barcelona and Juventus have both had their fair share of bizarre transfers over the course of the past few decades, but even ardent fans of either European giant would have raised an eyebrow at their business dealings in the summer of 2020.
In late June, the Catalan giants reached an agreement with their Italian counterparts to sign Miralem Pjanic in a deal worth no less than €60 million.
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If the money agreed for a distinctly average player wasn’t odd enough, it also coincided with Juve then buying Barca midfielder Arthur for €72m, plus a reported €10m in bonuses.
Despite signing a four-year deal and a release clause of €400m, few truly understood why Barca had spent so much money on a player neither they nor Juve particularly needed. And now, almost two years on, it’s become abundantly clear that it was a complete waste of money.
How much has Pjanic cost Barcelona?
As previously mentioned, Pjanic arrived at Camp Nou in part of a deal that cost the club €60m, so that’s where we’ll begin.
Now on loan at Besiktas, the Bosnian playmaker still spent at least 18 months at the Spanish club where he managed just 30 appearances and over the course of that period of time he reportedly earned no less than €23.3m in wages. Which takes his running total to €83.3m as a Barca player.
When we consider that in that time Pjanic only made 30 appearances and only played a mere 1,295 minutes of football, we can quickly stipulate just how much the player has cost Barca per game and per minute.
Remarkably, to date Pjanic has so far cost Barca €2.7m per appearance and an eye-watering €64,324 per minute of football he has played for the Spanish club.
Not only is that a crazy waste of money for any club, but it's made all the more ridiculous when you consider that Pjanic didn’t register a single goal or assist in that period of time.
