Barca to miss out on €60 MILLION transfer windfall for La Masia pair
Daniel Edwards
- 2 Aug 2022 21:05 BST
- 3 min read
Money has been tight around Barcelona in recent years, and even with the exercising of Joan Laporta's economic levers the club still has to watch the pennies in order to bankroll its ambitious summer plans.
It must sting at least a little, then, to see that while the Blaugrana are still capable of producing talent that then move for six or seven-figure sums, it is other teams that are reaping the benefits.
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Take Marc Cucurella, for one.
The left-back made just one solitary appearance for his hometown club and spent most of his time as a senior on loan before finally being offloaded to Getafe on a permanent basis in 2019.
Just three years later, and after blossoming into a first-class defender during his single season at Brighton, Cucurella is destined for Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea paying an estimated €60 million for the 24-year-old's services.
Barca, though, only saw €10m in the original sale, plus a paltry €1.8m for their cut in the deal that took him to Brighton.
That shortfall does not paint the Catalans' business acumen in a particularly positive light, but it may not be the only time - nor, indeed, over the only full-back - they are left counting the cost of their short-term thinking.
Another loss coming?
Like Cucurella Sergio Gomez came through La Masia as a promising young defender; and like Cucurella, he found his path to the first-team well and truly blocked by the glut of talent in front of him.
At just 18 Gomez was sold off to Borussia Dortmund, in a deal that was worth €3m but crucially did not include any type of sell-on clause with an eye to the future.
Gomez fell short at Dortmund but has since found his feet with Belgian giants Anderlecht, starring for the side during his debut season in 2021-22.
He has now drawn attention from Manchester City, keen to add a young left-back to their ranks after missing out on Cucurella, and is likely to comfortably outstrip that initial sale as talks continue this month.
City have reportedly extended an initial bid of €10m, while Anderlecht are determined to hold out for a valuation closer to €30m, per Sport. Assuming that the clubs meet somewhere around the middle of those two figures we can estimate a final fee of around €15-20m, at least €12m more than Barca received in their hasty sale back in 2018.
The final losses from Cucurella and Gomez, then, could reach up to €60m - a number that will likely not leave Laporta in a good mood as he continues to juggle the club's debts and gargantuan salary bill.
