According to a report from Alfredo Martinez on SPORT (h/t Barcelona Universal), La Liga heavyweights Barcelona turned down a huge bid worth in the region of €70 million from Arsenal for Brazilian winger Raphinha in January.
The 26-year-old moved to the Camp Nou from Leeds United in the summer transfer window in a €65 million deal including add-ons as Barcelona president Joan Laporta activated an economic level to make the deal feasible.
He arrived at Camp Nou off the back two impressive seasons in the Premier League, where he contributed with 17 goals and 12 assists and was crucial in keeping Leeds afloat in the English top-flight.
However, things haven’t gone as planned for the Brazil international in Spain, with Raphinha spending much of the season on the bench, with Xavi favouring Ousmane Dembele ahead of the Brazilian ace.
Raphinha has still managed to showcase flashes of his brilliance in limited gametime, with the winger contributing four goals four assists in 21 appearances, which is a decent return given only 12 of those arrived from the start.
Arsenal were linked with the Brazilian over the January transfer window after they failed to land top target Mykhaylo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk with the deal for the Ukraine international hijacked Premier League rivals Chelsea.
However, the player put all the speculation to bed in an interview as insisted he was ready to win more trophies with Barca after they won the Spanish Super Cup in January.
Spanish publication Sport has now revealed that Arsenal even made a €70 million offer for Raphinha in January with €58 million as a fixed fee, but the Catalan giants rejected it.
Despite it being deemed as ‘good business’ in the wake of Barca’s perilous financial situation, the club chiefs ‘said no’ to the Arsenal proposal as boss Xavi Hernandez wants Raphinha for the future.
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