New claim emerges about the fee Leeds United actually paid to sign Raphinha | OneFootball

The former president of the club who sold Raphinha to Leeds has said that his performances since have demonstrated that they sold him too cheaply

The President of French club Stade Rennais at the time that they sold Raphinha to Leeds United in 2020 has admitted in an interview with Eurosport France that the player was sold for too little money.

Leeds enjoyed two years of Raphinha's service in the Premier League following his £17m move from Rennes. He's now at Barcelona and has just missed out on the Champions League final in epic fashion against Inter Milan.

Raphinha was sold for too little by Rennes

Olivier Letang, who’s now the president of Lille, told a wide-ranging interview, in response to a direct question, that the player was sold to Leeds too cheaply. The former Rennes figure said that: “I think that, looking at his career path, which again is not a surprise given his qualities and mentality, the answer is very simple (that he was sold too cheaply).”

Letang had a lot of praise to lavish upon the Brazilian winger: “I'm super happy for him because he deserves it on both a sporting and human level. The player has exploded, but the man hasn't changed. He's truly a wonderful person. He worked like crazy to get where he is, so he deserves everything that's coming to him.”

Raphinha was sold to Leeds in October 2020 for £17 million. They had signed him just over a year earlier from Sporting Clube de Portugal for over £20m.

Leeds profited from sale to Barcelona

Leeds did manage to turn a profit on him, though, when they sold him less than two years later to Barcelona on a five-year contract in July 2022 for a reported initial fee of £49 million, rising to a potential £55 million with add-ons.

The sale came with Leeds having only just avoided relegation after finishing the 2021/22 season in 17th place in the Premier League and just three points above the bottom three. They were relegated back into the Championship at the end of the following season.

Raphinha has had the success he’d have expected so far with Barca

Since arriving at Barca, Raphinha has won the silverware that a player arriving at this club would expect to despite the club having had severe financial difficulties when he first arrived there. His first season with the club ended with them winning La Liga in 2023, and he survived the club’s near-financial meltdown to remain with the club as they rebuilt into one of the strongest in Europe.

At the end of April, they won the Copa Del Rey, beating Real Madrid 3-2 after extra-time, though their bid to win this year’s Champions League ended in the semi-finals with an extra-time defeat to Internazionale.

But while his move from England to Spain has been a success for both clubs and the player himself, his earlier transfer to England from France is clearly a cause of some regret for the man who was the club’s President at the time.