La Liga boss says Barcelona are too broke to sign Robert Lewandowski, Joan Laporta hits back

FC Barcelona have clandestine finances even at the best of times, but their actions this summer are stretching the limits of credibility. The Catalans have made Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski their chief target for this transfer window, seemingly forgetting the fact that they’re nearly broke.

Or, at least that’s what La Liga President Javier Tebas would have you believe. Speaking to the Spanish news agency Europa Press, Tebas declared that Barca would have to sell at least one of their main stars to finance a transfer of Lewandowski’s caliber:

Barca have already sold Philippe Coutinho to Aston Villa this summer, but the €20m or so they got from the deal won’t be enough to cover the costs of the Lewy operation. Several of the Catalan club’s key players have been linked with a transfer out of the club, especially Frenkie de Jong, who has been reportedly targeted by former boss Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.

Of course, this being La Liga and therefore an endless source of drama, Barca president Joan Laporta hit back at Tebas’ concerns, saying the following:

This is the part where we point out that Javier Tebas is a self-admitted Real Madrid fan, and therefore has plenty of reason to misrepresent Barca’s financial situation. You’d think that the boss of La Liga wouldn’t want to expose the fact that one of the league’s biggest clubs is nearly broke, but whatever. The important part is, he’s not the only one who’s expressed doubts about Barcelona’s ability to pay for transfers this summer.

Despite Lewandowski’s declaration that his story at Bayern Munich is over, Barca’s financial situation could still end up becoming a roadblock that sinks the entire transfer. Per reports, the Catalans have already made a €30m bid for the Polish striker, while Bayern are still holding out for upwards of €40m. If the stalemate continues, both clubs could be forced to find some creative solutions to make the transfer happen. Otherwise, Lewandowski would end up having to stick around in Munich for another season, even after stating his intention to leave. That can’t be comfortable.

By the way, if you’re curious about how the Lewandowski saga got to this point and why the player wants to leave Bayern Munich so badly, we did a breakdown of it on an episode of our podcast. It has contextualizes how the Bayern board handled negotiations and what went wrong along the way. Listen to it below or at this link.

If you like what you hear, check out our most recent episode! We cover the Sadio Mane topic, Nagelsmann’s potential striker-less system, and more!