Arsenal oust Barcelona from the race to sign the favorite Xavi deal
Arsenal is close to dealing a strong blow to its Spanish counterpart, FC Barcelona, by kidnapping one of its most prominent contractual goals in the current summer transfers.
According to the Brazilian network Goal, Arsenal are close to signing the Brazilian winger, Rafinha, who is currently active in the Leeds United team.
And the network reported, that Rafinha has been in Barcelona’s search diary for some time, but Leeds’ stay in the Premier League complicated matters for Barca in the deal, at a time when the Catalan club is suffering from a difficult financial crisis that affects its movements in the players market.
The network indicated that Arsenal is leading the race to contract with Rafinha after the English club made an offer, which the network described as great, without revealing its details and numbers.
The network claimed that Barcelona was completely out of the race to sign Rafinha, after the player was tired of waiting for Barca in vain.
And the network said, that Rafinha will not wait for the La Liga giant and is ready to complete the move to Arsenal early this week. It is known that Leeds have asked for 43 million pounds (50 million euros) for his services this summer, and the Gunners are ready to meet these demands.
Barcelona had reached an agreement on personal terms with Rafinha, but he did not agree with Leeds, knowing that the value of the deal would be in the range of 65 or 75 million euros.