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BARCELONA, Spain , 13 Jul (AP) \u2014 Barcelona announced Wednesday it has reached a deal to sign Leeds playmaker Raphinha and will also keep France forward Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 at the club.<\/p>\n
The agreement to sign Brazil international Raphinha was pending the 25-year-old winger passing a medical. Leeds also confirmed it had reached an agreement in principle with Barcelona.<\/p>\n
Barcelona president Joan Laporta also said the club is keeping Demb\u00e9l\u00e9, who is expected to have his contract extended until the end of 2024. Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 performed well this past season after refusing to leave on a loan.<\/p>\n
Laporta did not answer questions on whether Barcelona was still trying to sign Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich. Laporta said recently that Barcelona had made an offer for the striker.<\/p>\n
The Catalan club has been recovering after enduring a dire financial situation prompted by the pandemic with past club officials also blamed for poor administration.<\/p>\n
Financial details of the Raphinha transfer were not immediately disclosed, but local media said Barcelona would pay nearly 60 million euros ($60 million) plus add-ons.<\/p>\n
Barcelona called Raphinha a player who is \u201cexcellent in one on ones, with taking on defenders a key part of his game.\u201d It called him a \u201cdifference-maker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raphinha made his debut with Brazil\u2019s national team last year and is set to make the squad for the World Cup in Qatar later this year.<\/p>\n
Raphinha moved from Brazil to Europe early in his career, joining Portuguese club Vit\u00f3ria Guimar\u00e3es before moving to Sporting Lisbon for 6.5 million euros in 2018.<\/p>\n
He went to Rennes for 21 million euros in 2019, then joined Leeds a year later and quickly became a key player in Marcelo Bielsa\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n
TRINC\u00c3O TO SPORTING<\/p>\n
Barcelona said it sent Portuguese forward Francisco Trinc\u00e3o on a one-year loan deal to Sporting Lisbon. The deal includes an option for Sporting to keep the 22-year-old player.<\/p>\n
Trinc\u00e3o joined Barcelona from Braga in 2020 but struggled to make an impact, scoring three goals and earning two assists in 42 matches before being loaned to Wolverhampton last season.<\/p>\n
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BARCELONA, Spain , 13 Jul (AP) \u2014 Barcelona announced Wednesday it has reached a deal to sign Leeds playmaker Raphinha and will also keep France forward Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 at the club. The agreement to sign Brazil international Raphinha was pending the 25-year-old winger passing a medical. Leeds also confirmed it had reached an agreement in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-195411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}