Raphinha tells friends he wants to quit Leeds United and join Barcelona
Raphinha has told his friends that he wants to leave Leeds United this summer and join Barcelona, according to Juan Medina.
Writing via his personal Twitter account on 24 May, the 90min journalist reported that contacts between Raphinha, 25, and Barca haven’t stopped and that the Brazil winger has “already notified those around him that he wants to play for Barcelona next season”.
It is understood that Barca manager Xavi “really likes” Raphinha, who is valued at £60million by the Whites [Daily Mail].
Matter of time
Everyone at Leeds seems to have come to accept that Raphinha has played his final game for the club.
And what a game it was, by the way, as Raphinha proved to be instrumental as he scored in a 2-1 win at Brentford to secure Leeds’ Premier League safety.
That performance and result means that the Whites will be able to demand top-dollar for the Brazil international, who would have gone for a cut-price fee had the Yorkshire giants been relegated back to the Championship.
We’ll miss Raphinha massively and replacing him won’t at all be easy.
However, if we get a decent fee for the Brazilian then that’ll make things a whole lot easier.
Victor Orta’s had his bad moments throughout his time as Leeds’ director of football but you have to stand back and applaud his signing of Raphinha from Rennes for just £17million in 2020.
And if Orta can strike a deal like that once, he can definitely do it again to replace Raphinha.
It’ll be difficult and it might take quite a while to find someone affordable who can fill the Brazilian’s boots.
However, it’s something that simply must happen at Elland Road in the coming weeks and months because we cannot rely on a returning loanee like Helder Costa to fill the void.
In other Leeds United news, a player has arrived in England ahead of undergoing a medical with the Whites on Thursday.