Barcelona earn €40 million in rare transfer market masterclass

In what has been a rare smart move, Barcelona have made €40 million in this window from sales of five fringe players, who had only played a combined total of just 193 minutes of professional football for the club.

Barcelona have had way more flops than hits on the transfer market. In just this window alone, they signed Dani Olmo, a player they probably didn’t need for €60m. While Olmo might still be a hit, Barca’s transfer issues mean that they don’t have the salary space to register him in La Liga. To make way for him, they have had to offload their best player from last year, Ilkay Gundogan on a free, despite him having two years left on his contract.

Who are the players Barcelona have sold?

Chadi Riad, a 21 year old left footed centre back who came through La Masia featured for just one minute in a league match against Osasuna last season, was sold to Crystal Palace, netting Barcelona €9 million, €6 million of which is in capital gains and the other €3 million in fixed payments. He impressed last season on loan at Real Betis.

Full back Julian Araujo spent last season on loan at Las Palmas moved to Bournemouth for €10 million, without making a first-team appearance for Barcelona.

Winger Estanis Pedrola had played only ten minutes of football for the first team and he was sold to Sampdoria, who exercised their €3 million purchase option to make a loan deal permanent.

Defender Mika Faye similarly has never played first team football for Barcelona but Rennes signed him for €12 million (announcement pending).

The only one that might hurt Barca long term is the sale of Marc Guiu to Chelsea for €6 million. He played 182 minutes spread over seven games last season, scoring twice. The striker had been at La Masia since childhood and is highly rated. With Robert Lewandowski now 36, this is the move that Barca could regret.