Deco, Barça’s master card

The current contract that unites Raphael Dias, Raphinha, with Leeds United has a trick, as revealed by the Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano. Although release clauses are rare in England, the 26-year-old Brazilian winger has not one, but two. The first, and currently in force, marks his immediate release at 75 million euros. The second, which changes everything, lowers that amount to 25 in case the peacocks relegated to the Championship.

In other words, the team now trained by Jesse Marsch after the departure of Marcelo Bielsa not only plays for the category (with eight games to go, they are seven points away from the red zone), but also a substantial amount of 50 million euros. It is the reason why Barça has not yet made an offer to the English club despite the fact that the international is raffled off after two seasons of exponential growth, with PSG and Bayern Munich receiving preferential attention. Calmness spreads at the Camp Nou: the contractual agreement would not be a problem.

Deco, his agent and former Barça player, has already tipped the balance in favor of his friend Laporta, who is making room for him in Barça’s technical field as a Brazilian football specialist to replace André Cury. The Portuguese, head of the D20 Sports agency and who also has others such as Tapsoba or Caio Henrique in his portfolio, is his master card. It was already key in the signing of Aubameyang and it seems definitive in Raphinha’s. Even Dani Alves, who coincided with him in Sao Paulo, has already been in charge of selling him the ‘goodness’ of the club.

So much so that even some media such as the newspaper Sport They already talk about a five-year “agreement” with an affordable salary to occupy the emptiness that Ousmane Dembélé will leave. Antony, also a Brazilian from Ajax and with the same profile, was the other option, but Raphinha is considered one step ahead. The Barça club is one step ahead thanks to Deco, its X factor. But everything will depend on Dembéle, and the high degree of unpredictability about a renewal that seems like a utopia. Nothing is ruled out.