Barcelona’s wing player, Raphinha, has confirmed the existence of an extremely lucrative offer to join the Saudi Pro league, but his answer also seems to indicate that a new contract in Catalonia is preferred.
Raphhinha has a remarkable turn in the past 12 months. Last summer, the Brazilian looked like he was being pushed out when the club Nico Williams would be very publicly courted. But after a sensational campaign of 2024/25, it is considered a real balloon d’Or Contender.
In the past few days, however, a proposal has been reported to join a contract of € 220 million over five years with a transfer fee of € 100 million to Barcelona. Raphhinha confirmed remarkably that he would have taken it if the offer had come last summer when he was in a completely different place.
“Someone sent me news about the offer from Saudi Arabia, and frankly I was very surprised because the numbers are very, very high. Honestly, if I had received this offer last year, I would have gone” TNT Sport Brazil.
“At that time I was in a small psychological breakdown, and this offer would solve everything in my life, my wife’s life and the life of my family. It was a lot of money that would completely change our lives,” he added.
Raphinha suggested that every player would be tried from such an offer, and claimed that it was naive to believe that someone could simply reject a Saudi Arabia that gets out of control. But with this season, in which it ran out – there are 53 goals and templates in 49 appearances for him, with a La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League, which is still possible – it is more “closed” and “open” for dreams.
“Anyone who says he won’t go is lying because it is impossible to recognize the number of this size and not to believe that this offer will change your life and that you could go,” he said.
“I thought I had a lot to offer here in Europe, had a lot to offer to this club and I still had the great opportunity to continue to represent the national team. That made me a little bit of money and open my thoughts more to my dreams.”
While there are suggestions that Raphhinha is not about Barcelona’s current offer for a new contract for the current offer from Barcelona, it could still correspond better to its ambitions than to take and run Saudi money.