Barcelona owe nearly €200m in transfer fees

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:45 CDT
• 4 min read

Barcelona’s difficult financial position has been laid bare by aspects of the club’s accounts being made public on Monday.

The Camp Nou side, for example, have liabilities of €1.173 billion, while almost €200m of this is directly relating to transfers.

Due to the nature of many deals being amortised over the course of several years, they even own money to clubs on players they have since moved on.

Their largest outstanding debt, however, relates to Philippe Coutinho, who they signed from Liverpool in the summer of 2017 as a replacement for Neymar, who moved to PSG in a blockbuster deal.

Accounts published by Marca show that the short-term debt that Barca must over on the Brazilian stands at over €29m, while the longer term debt could total up to €40m.

Barcelona’s transfer debts:

Meanwhile, they still owe Ajax up to €48m for midfielder Frenkie de Jong, of which around €16m must be paid in the short term.

The balance sheet lays bare how poor Barcelona’s work in the transfer market has been in recent years, with Barca still to pay Betis €9m defensive flop Junior Firpo. Meanwhile, they still owe Bordeaux close to €10m for Malcom, who was another due deal.

While the debt owed does make worrying reading, it should be stressed that this is offset to some extent by money that Barcelona are owed by other clubs.

For example, they are due to receive around €59m before the end of June for players they have sold – including the aforementioned Malcom. Additionally, in the longer term, they are owed €86m.

Nevertheless, these figures scantly cover the short-term losses that Barcelona are set to suffer.

It helps to outline why they are finding it so difficult to reach an agreement with star man Lionel Messi over a new deal.

Barcelona are presently third in La Liga but 10 points behind runaway leaders Atletico Madrid, who also have two matches in hand.