English Premier League club Leeds United have officially announced that their Brazilian winger Raphinha will not travel with the club for their tour of Australia as he wants to stay back and finalize his transfer to another club this summer.
The Brazilian winger is interested in joining Barcelona and the Spanish giants have made an improved offer on Friday but it still falls short of Chelsea’s bid of £55million plus add-ons which was accepted by Leeds United earlier.
Leeds have left England to start their pre-season games in Australia but Raphinha is not among the 26 players going on the tour.
Jesse Marsch’s team will play against fellow English Premier League teams; Crystal Palace and Aston Villa during the tour.
Their first game will be against Brisbane Roar which is an Australian club. Raphinha reportedly asked Leeds United to leave him out of the traveling squad because he wants to finalize his transfer to Barcelona or Chelsea.
Chelsea have agreed to a £60million deal with Leeds United, but the player is reluctant to agree on personal terms with the Blues because he desires to play for Barcelona next season.
On the other hand, Barcelona are currently facing huge financial issues as they entered the summer with a debt of £508million, but are reducing it by selling some TV rights.
The Spanish giants are yet to register Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen as their new players because of the financial problems at the club and will have to wait until more money is raised.
The huge debt is the reason why Barcelona placed a bid for Raphinha that is lower than what Chelsea offered to Leeds United. This has made Raphinha give the Spanish giants 48 hours to come up with a better offer or he will consider switching his interest to Chelsea.
On the situation, Leeds manager Jesse Marsch said: ‘There’s urgency from his end, I think, to come up with a solution. We have to in the next couple of days see how things stand and see how we go.
‘It hasn’t been an easy time for him this summer. ‘Things have come and gone and there have been a lot of little discussions. Right now he’s our player.’
Meanwhile, Chelsea have officially reached an agreement with Man City for Raheem Sterling and the winger is expected to have his medical with the Blues very soon. Thomas Tuchel is also searching for new defenders and Raheem Sterling’s teammate Nathan Ake is on his list.
