It’s finally here. The day has arrived. The Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona transfer saga has now reached its inevitable conclusion. Multiple outlets, all across the world, are reporting that Liverpool has agreed to sell the Brazilian to Barca for £142 million ($192m, €160m).
Several media outlets claim that the official announcement will come as early as this evening.
The monetary amount potentially breaks the British and Liverpool records for a transfer sale. It would also become the third most expensive signing in world history behind only Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
The Telegraph writes that: “Coutinho is due to fly out to Barcelona later on Saturday evening to finalize terms, with the move including a significant immediate down-payment following by achievable, guaranteed add-ons.”
Barcelona, looking for star power and to reinvest some of that massive cash influx they received from Paris Saint-Germain for Neymar, have been aggressively pursuing the playmaker for quite some time. They had three bids for Coutinho rejected in the summer time.
Despite Liverpool’s insistence that he was not for sale, Coutinho still clamored for the move, and Barcelona persisted in their pursuit. Today, it appears that Coutinho and the Catalan club will get their wish.
It’s certainly been a more interesting than usual January transfer window thus far, with Liverpool adding Virgil van Dijk and Chelsea signing Ross Barkley.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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