Just after Barcelona announced the arrival of the Polish frontman Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich, Julian Nagelsmann was quick to question how the Spanish giants are able to buy players given their financial woes.
Lewandowski left Bayern after eight years of relationship with the club, scoring 344 goals in 374 appearances. He is the club’s second-highest scorer of all-time behind Gerd Muller.
After two months of negotiations between Bayern and Barcelona, the 33-year-old publicly forced his way out from the Bundesliga champions.
Lewandowski joins Xavi’s side on a four-year deal with a reported €45m + €5m transfer fee. The lethal striker’s release clause amounts to €500 million.
When Bayern manager Nagelsmann was asked about the transfer, he did not hesitate to take a shot at Barca as he believes they are treated differently from the rest, with the club currently having €1.3bn debt and struggling to register players in both transfer windows.
“It is the only club in the world that have no money but then buys all the players they want,” Nagelsmann said on recent Barca signings via BILD.
“I don’t know how they do it. It’s a bit strange, a bit crazy.”
According to Transfermarkt, the Catalan club has spent €103m on transfers after the acquisitions of Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha and Lewandowski.
Most of the blame for the Blaugrana’s financial struggles has been linked to former president Josep Bartomeu, who resigned in 2020 — denying wrongdoing — amid accusations of irregularities in his administration and a fallout with Lionel Messi. The COVID-19 pandemic also affected the club, but the increasingly high salaries of the first-team squad created most of the problems. According to Global Sports Salaries Survey, Barcelona held the highest payroll in all sports toward the end of Bartomeu’s administration. The spending on players surpassed the club’s total income when new president Joan Laporta arrived last year.
Laporta has since refinanced the club’s debt and worked hard to reduce salaries and increase the focus on promoting youth players to the first team.
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