{"id":782616,"date":"2026-07-24T21:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/782616\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:58:11","slug":"barcelona-pass-up-chance-to-sign-serie-a-forward-who-is-close-to-completing-e50-million-turkey-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/782616\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona pass up chance to sign Serie A forward who is close to completing \u20ac50 million Turkey move"},"content":{"rendered":"

FC Barcelona, and Joan Laporta in particular, have a great relationship with super-agent Jorge Mendes, which means a number of his clients are offered to the Catalan club.<\/p>\n

Among the many Mendes clients offered to Bar\u00e7a this summer, one of them is AC Milan star Rafael Leao.<\/p>\n

While the Portuguese is not directly represented by Mendes, he has been offered to the Blaugrana on a number of occasions, including this summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport<\/a>, the Catalan club have chosen not to pursue a move for the Portuguese star this summer.<\/p>\n

Mendes tried to present Leao to both Barcelona<\/a> and Manchester United, but neither club decided to move forward with a deal.<\/p>\n

He is now closing in on a \u20ac50 million deal to join Turkish side Fenerbahce.<\/p>\n

Barcelona were not convinced<\/p>\n

\"RafaelBarcelona were offered chance to sign Leao. (Photo by Buda Mendes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It does seem like Barcelona were comfortable looking elsewhere rather than committing significant resources to Leao.<\/p>\n

The deal being discussed with Fenerbahce would include a \u20ac50 million transfer fee and a salary package worth \u20ac8 million per season in guaranteed wages, plus performance-related bonuses.<\/p>\n

For the Blaugrana, those financial figures are likely to have played an important role.<\/p>\n

Even if Leao is a player with undeniable quality, the club continue to operate with strict financial considerations when planning the squad.<\/p>\n

Deco and Flick appear to have other priorities<\/p>\n

Passing on Leao does not necessarily reflect a lack of appreciation for his talent. Instead, it may indicate that Deco and Hansi Flick have different priorities for strengthening the attack.<\/p>\n

The club have already signed Karim Adeyemi and Anthony Gordon, who add enough attacking firepower and the quality that Hansi Flick needs off the ball.<\/p>\n

\"KarimBarcelona have signed Adeyemi. (Photo courtesy: FC Barcelona official website)<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s recruitment in recent windows has focused on finding players who fit the tactical structure while remaining financially sustainable.<\/p>\n

Leao is capable of changing matches with his pace and dribbling, but consistency and a lack of off-the-ball work have often been part of the discussion around his performances.<\/p>\n

All things considered, this is a very sensible decision for Barcelona. The last thing the club need is a talented player who might not be a great stylistic fit.<\/p>\n

That said, it comes as quite a surprise that there are not more clubs queuing up to sign the Portuguese forward from Milan.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether he secures his move to Fenerbahce and how his career progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FC Barcelona, and Joan Laporta in particular, have a great relationship with super-agent Jorge Mendes, which means a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[418,49042,4893,27191,403,99],"class_list":["post-782616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-rafael-leao","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}