Summer spending league: 'Broke' Barcelona go top with €60m Kounde
Robin Bairner
- 25 Jul 2022 04:11 CDT
- 3 min read
If Barcelona complete the signing of Jules Kounde from Sevilla, it will mean that Catalan club have spent more than any other club in world football during the 2022 summer transfer window.
Barca appear to be leading the tug-of-war with Chelsea for the France international, who can play either at right-back or centre-back and will pay around €60 million to secure his signature.
It would be another remarkable swoop in what has been an entirely unique transfer window for the Camp Nou club, who have defied their poor financial position to secure the signings of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen already.
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Barca have taken out bank loans to stabilise their position and have sold off a key long-term assets in the form of 25% of their income from La Liga television revenue to allow huge short-term spending.
Although Frenkie de Jong continues to be linked with a move to Manchester United, there has been little attempt from Barca to make sales before incoming transfers are completed.
Indeed, among the biggest-spending 11 clubs in the summer transfer window, only Arsenal and Chelsea have smaller transfer revenues than Barcelona this summer.
| Player | From | Fee (€m) |
|---|---|---|
| Raphinha | Leeds | 58 |
| Robert Lewandowski | Bayern | 45 |
| Franck Kessie | Milan | Free |
| Andreas Christensen | Chelsea | Free |
Who tops the summer spending league?
It is the Gunners who have been the biggest spenders in the world so far, posting €132m of spending on transfer fees.
Before any deal for Kounde takes place, Barcelona sit on €103m. Should the France defender arrive, Barca would likely be forced to pay at least €60m as a transfer fee, carrying them well above the Premier League side.
| Club | Transfer spending (€m) |
|---|---|
| Arsenal | 132 |
| Bayern Munich | 117.5 |
| Man City | 109 |
| Leeds | 105.5 |
| Barcelona | 103 |
| Tottenham | 102 |
| Chelsea | 94 |
| Juventus | 89.5 |
| Dortmund | 86 |
| Liverpool | 86 |
Should the Kounde deal be completed, it would also mean that Barcelona have the biggest net spend so far this summer, carrying them to at least €130m in the red on transfer spending – twice that of virtually every other club in the world with the exception of Arsenal.
These figures only serve to emphasize Barcelona’s ambition in the transfer market, but also underlines that they cannot afford to get these deals wrong.
