It was a world record fee that Barcelona received for Neymar last summer but €222 million doesn’t get close to covering the amount the club have splashed the Brazilian fled to Paris.
Nobody has spent more than Barcelona over the last 12 months. Manchester City are second at €387m, Paris Saint-Germain are third at €373m and Liverpool are fourth at €350m.
At there is no sign that Barcelona are going to halt their spending spree anytime soon. They just signed Malcom for €41m euros plus a further €1m euro in add-ons.
That is on top of the €31m forked over for midfielder Arthur, with €9m in bonuses for the Brazilian, and the €39.5m release clause matched to sign Clement Lenglet from Sevilla to reach a bill of €107.9m euros this summer alone.
However even that is dwarfed by the club record signing of Philippe Coutinho, who cost €120m euros plus €40m euros in bonuses when signing from Liverpool in January, whereas Neymar’s immediate replacement, Ousmane Dembele, arrived for €105m euros along with another €40m euros in variables.
In total, the La Liga champions are committed to spending €90m add-ons on top of their initial €384.7m splurge as they fill the gap left by Neymar, as well as other departing players.
Even for a club as large as Barcelona, that is a frightening amount to spend on new players and it is no wonder that Barca are willing to listen to offers for most of their squad.
They have already let Paulinho go on loan to Guangzhou Evergrande on the premise he moves back to China permanently via a €50m euro mandatory purchase clause.
Only Javier Mascherano, Cristian Tello and Gerard Deulofeu have left on permanent deals this summer, but combined they have only raised €22.5m. When added to Neymar’s transfer fee, the Catalans have amassed €244.5m euros in sales since the winger’s exit.
The hope within the club is that they can top €350m in sales by the time the transfer window closes next month. Expected to leave are Jasper Cillessen, Aleix Vidal, Yerry Mina, Andre Gomes, Rafinha, Munir El Haddadi, whi are all either wanting to leave the club or are up for sale.
