Barcelona won La Liga despite financial turmoil, Vinícius took on racists and managerial chaos engulfed Elche, Celta and Sevilla
It wasn’t quite “Camp Nou: available for weddings and barmitzvahs” but it was close. It was also seriously tempting. For only €300, you too could play in European football’s biggest stadium. Sixty minutes, a ref, coaches and Gatorade; medical attention as well, which was probably a good thing. Some €1bn in debt and with a salary limit of minus €144m, Barcelona had to raise money somehow if they were to start the virtuous cycle their president talked about. Or just the season with the men they had signed. Trouble was, even hundreds of people playing hundreds of games weren’t going to cover Gerard Piqué sitting on the bench for just one. Which is where the palancas came in.
The word of last summer, suddenly it was everywhere, part of the footballing lexicon, maybe even its folklore. Selling players wasn’t easy, although they really did try, and so Barcelona sold other assets instead. TV rights, mostly. In total, they pulled four palancas, or levers, putting €777m on the balance sheet and seven new players on the pitch. At 9.30pm on the evening before La Liga started, Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Andreas Christensen and Ousmane Dembélé were finally registered along with Franck Kessié. Jules Koundé had to wait a while. Héctor Bellerín and Marcos Alonso followed.
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