Barcelona nearly blew €63m on Leeds flop Rodrigo Moreno
Karan Tejwani
- 19 May 2022 11:42 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona were once reportedly close to agreeing a deal for Leeds United’s Rodrigo Moreno €63 million, when the player was still at Valencia.
This past week, audios have been leaked from conversations between Valencia President Anil Murthy, and the most recent leaks revealed Barcelona’s transfer wishes.
The Blaugrana wished to sign the forward a few years ago, and Murthy even confirmed he spoke to top Barcelona officials to conclude the deal, but it never truly materialized.
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Rodrigo was in impressive form in La Liga between 2017 and 2019, which is when Barcelona’s interest in the player rose and they were keen on bringing him to Camp Nou.
Instead, Valencia kept hold of Rodrigo, and he ended up moving to Leeds United after the English club were promoted to the Premier League in 2020.
An extract from the audios included Murthy talking about his trip to Barcelona, and how the club were set to structure payments of the deal.
"I go to Barcelona to sell Rodrigo. Atletico wanted to buy him at first and later Barcelona. 63 million. Rodrigo's father wants two million in commission.
Murthy continues: “I go with Ramón Planes, Oscar Grau, Eric Abidal and they tell me: 'Right, we can buy for 63 million no problem. We're going to pay the two million to the dad, this year, but only 30 million for Fair Play and then (the rest sorted) next year and that's that.”
💻 EXCLUSIVA SUPER | #LosAudiosdeAnil
🗣️"El Barça me dijo que podía comprarlo por 63 millones (...) Mi nombre estaba ahí y podía ir a Picassent" pic.twitter.com/pQ1X47AwAk— Superdeporte (@superdeporte_es) May 18, 2022
However, the deal wasn’t concluded as Murthy wanted guarantees of the payments which were to be made, as he wanted getting into financial trouble.
The deal didn’t happen between the two clubs, and when Valencia ended up selling Rodrigo to Leeds, the Premier League club only paid €30 million for the forward – less than half of what Barcelona would’ve paid.
Since then Rodrigo has played 61 matches across all competitions for Leeds, and has scored 13 goals, six of which have come this season.
