Barcelona sells another piece for 100 million to be able to register the signings

Joan Laporte and Jules Koundé, at the player's presentation at the Ciudad Deportiva. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)

Xavi Hernández goes from the blackboard to the telephone.

The technician works in the field and in the offices, also in his car.

He connects to the hands-free and convinces the players to sign for Barcelona.

The coach's last crusade was Sevilla's central defender, Jules Koundé, 23 years old.

“They were very fluid conversations.

It made me feel loved.

He showed me that he wanted me to come here”, the French defender confessed yesterday at his presentation to Barça.

The Barça president, Joan Laporta, took the baton from Koundé and took the opportunity to insist on a recurring message from the offices: the club gives Xavi everything he asks for.

“We brought in a player who was highly desired by our coach”, underlined the Barça top manager.

Koundé will be linked to Barcelona for the next five seasons and will have a termination clause of 1.

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Koundé had the patience to dress as a Barça player.

As he explained, he even had to cover his ears before arriving at the Camp Nou.

"Chelsea loved me, but I wanted to play for Barça," said the international with France - he has played 11 games since he debuted with Les Blues in June 2021 -.

However, his arrival at Barcelona not only depended on Xavi's insistence and Koundé's will.

The club needed more economic air after having closed the signings of Kessié, Christensen, Raphinha and Lewandowski, in addition to the renewals Sergi Roberto and Dembélé.

"I want to point out one thing," intervened Mateu Alemany, Barcelona's director of football.

“Every day Jules's representative called me to find out if we had already settled the issue of fair play.

I even told him not to call me anymore because I had nothing new to say to him."

But the economic area has a plan.

The club divests itself of assets to balance accounts as well as to reinforce Xavi's squad.

In June, before the end of the 2021-2022 season, the Barça entity closed the sale of 10% of its television rights to the investment group Sixth Street for the next 25 years in exchange for 207.5 million.

The transfer allowed him to close the last year on a positive note.

Three weeks later, he gave another 15% for 320 million to the same company and for the same period of time.

In this way, he directed his patrimonial situation (he had his own funds in the red) and strengthened his cash to continue his extensive activity in the transfer market.

Alemany, then, could already give the OK to the Koundé representative.

The economic hieroglyph is not over.

The club needs LaLiga to give it the go-ahead to register the new additions.

To calculate the financial fair play, the management analyzes the income budget and subtracts the planned non-sports expenses.

At the Barcelona offices they understand that after regulating their financial situation, LaLiga will not object.

“We do everything they ask to register them.

I guess they won't hinder us.

I hope that LaLiga makes the same interpretation as us.

If not, we will solve it”, resolved Laporta.

And, like someone who does not want the thing, he released that the club had collected 100 million for the sale of Barça Studios.

With Koundé as a spectator, Laporta gave more details after being questioned.

Not many more.

"We had the authorization of the board to transfer 49% of Barça Studios [production company that centralizes the club's audiovisual offer] and we have sold 24.5% to Socios.com", added the president.

The club has already been working with Socios.com since June 2020 through its fan token app, which began to be used by Juve and PSG in 2019 and allows fans to interact with their clubs.

"For example, choosing the design of the captain's armband or choosing the colors of the corner flag," say sources from the negotiation.

This business had already generated around 20 million euros for Barça, according to the same sources.

Socios.com, in any case, does not present itself only as an investor of Barça, but as a strategic partner, which will put "its knowledge, experience and technology, through Barça Studios, where 98 million will be invested", the statement detailed. of the company.

And he added: “The objective of this agreement is to strengthen the blockchain strategy [technology that allows the transfer of a value or asset from one place to another, without the help of third parties], NFT [exclusive crypto assets] and Web3 [decentralize the internet to reduce the dependency on big technology], strengthening the club's ability to create digital products that add value to fans”.

In other words, Barça is allied with a company that will give it technological resources but not audiovisual ones.

A pact that left some assembly members surprised, due to Laporta's way of communicating it and because it does not fit what Barça Studios does.

Barça delivers a new asset, another lever to save the economic and sporting situation.

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