It’s nearly official – we can almost stop discussing FC Barcelona’s ever-changing summer transfer narrative.
This morning, the Catalan club announced the sale of 24.5% of Barca Studios to Orpheus Media for $100 million.
The announcement says the sale will help FCB’s presence in the Web3 metaverse and NFT space, but we all know what it’s really about – the sale will allow real-life superstars to play in La Liga tomorrow.
Jaume Roures, the Catalonian businessman and owner of Orpheus Media, says of the deal,
“I don’t know what Barça will need to register all the players. What I do know is that this investment of $100M gives us to see the team we want to see tomorrow.”
One can only assume Roures refers to a Barcelona team featuring new signings like Robert Lewandowski, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen, Franke Kessie, and Raphinha.
It’s been a long and hot transfer summer for Barcelona. But if they manage to pull it off, as it now appears they will, it will likely go down as one of the most incredible transfer windows of all time. FCB Joan Laporta has given coach Xavi a veritable superteam in only three months, and it seems unlikely that any team in La Liga besides Real Madrid will be able to compete with Barca at full strength.
Barcelona’s partial sale of Barca Studios is the fourth lever pulled by Laporta to raise club revenues enough to comply with La Liga’s financial regulations. Other levers, or palancas, pulled include the new Spotify sponsorship and a partial sale of Barca Studios to Socios.com. Earlier this week, it seemed Barcelona would make a sale to GDA Luma, but the deal fell through.
This sent FCB scrambling, ultimately coming to rely on Roures’ Orpheus Media to make the deal, as Roures has helped Laporta come up with capital for the club in the past.
According to transfer titan Fabrizio Romano, the Orpheus deal will also allow the Catalan Kings to sign Spanish defender Marcos Alonso from Chelsea.
La Liga is still reviewing the deal as of writing, meaning Barcelona’s new signings are not yet officially cleared to play tomorrow. But hopefully, this settles everything, so we can finally stop talking about it.
That is, until they try and get Bernardo Silva from City next week…
Head coach Xavi says he is “optimistic” about getting all the new players registered by tomorrow and keen on keeping midfielder Frenkie de Jong and Aubameyang despite their ties to Chelsea, per ESPN’s Samuel Marsden.
However, Xavi’s comments could be interpreted as another Barcelona backhand to FDJ, who is reportedly being told that Barca wants him to stay, play, and do so for less money.
Meanwhile, Romano reports Barca striker Memphis Depay is about to make a two year departure for Juventus in Serie A.
UPDATE
Per multiple reports, it appears La Blaugrana has pulled it off, with La Liga approving registration of Barcelona’s big names.
Featured Image: Pexels/Tracy Le Blanc/FCBarcelona/DM
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