Barcelona completed the signing of Anthony Gordon from Newcastle United in a deal worth around €80million (£69.3m; $93.2m) on Friday, with a sell-on clause also included.
La Liga’s champions are also targeting Atletico Madrid forward Julian Alvarez, although they may well have to raise their valuation above the €100million bid they had prepared — judging by Atletico’s joke ‘bid’ for Lamine Yamal in response.
Barca have also been in talks with Bernardo Silva, whose contract at Manchester City is about to expire, and Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella, with the player keen to leave Stamford Bridge and the club open to a sale that meets their valuation.
The question arises: can they really afford it all?
Over the past five summer transfer windows, Barcelona’s long-running financial issues have led to serious problems when it comes to chasing signings and registering the new players that have arrived.
During this time, Barca president Joan Laporta and his board have found various creative ways to get around La Liga’s salary rules, including players taking wage deferrals, directors using their own wealth to secure bank guarantees and their now-famous levers — which brought in immediate funds through the sale of future assets.
Even then, things have not always gone smoothly.
Back in the summer of 2024, €60million signing Dani Olmo had to miss Barcelona’s opening two La Liga fixtures as the club could not register him, while last summer’s big target Nico Williams eventually decided to stay at Athletic Club over concerns he would find himself in a similar situation.
Barca’s most recent accounts showed debts of around €1.45billion — the largest in world football. So why are the Catalans so confident they can afford to invest?
Do Barcelona have money to spend?
Barcelona’s revenues have been increasing significantly in recent years, due to boosts in merchandising and especially their return to the Camp Nou in November — even if they are still well short of the 100,000 finished capacity while works continue (current capacity is about 60,000).
The Catalan club’s reported income for 2024-25 was €985million — up 29 per cent from the previous financial year. Barca projected another big jump to €1.075billion for 2025-26 in October, although the final figures have not yet been made public.
This growing financial strength was reflected in a report published last week by analytics group Football Benchmark, which cast Barca as the second most valuable club in European football behind Clasico rivals Real Madrid.
In theory, Barca sporting director Deco could have money to spend this summer, and €80million for Anthony Gordon and over €100m for Julian Alvarez does look plausible, especially as some players are leaving.
Robert Lewandowski’s exit on the expiry of his contract means a significant chunk will be removed from the wage bill, while we may well see the club make some sales, too.
If Barca were to sign Gordon and Alvarez, it would already represent the club’s biggest transfer outlay since the summer of 2022, when Lewandowski, Jules Kounde and Raphinha were among the major arrivals in a €160million spend — after the club sold 25 per cent of its future La Liga TV rights for €400m.
Why are they going big this summer?
Barca need a new No 9 to replace Lewandowski, while Gordon is being brought in to further strengthen the front line. They could have decided to sign Marcus Rashford permanently for €30million, but a factor in the club’s thinking was a belief that the cost of the Gordon deal, even if it contains a much higher transfer fee, provides benefits from an accounting perspective, given it can be amortised over his five-year deal.
Barca also believe that they will be able to move more freely this summer than in the future — as their salary limit with La Liga is likely to be tighter in coming seasons.
La Liga calculates each club’s salary limit according to revenue. Barcelona’s revenues have grown, so their salary limit will also grow. But if by this time next year their revenues are projected to be lower, their salary limit will reflect that.
Gordon during his official presentation at Barcelona on Friday (Josep Lago / AFP via Getty Images)
The Camp Nou is a key factor again here. A new roof is due to be fitted at the stadium from the summer of 2027. That will likely require another spell playing across the city at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, which will lead to significantly lower matchday revenues.
If a club is overspending on their salary limit, La Liga can restrict their ability to register new players, or contract renewals of existing players.
But, crucially, once a player has been registered, their status is not affected by the salary limit — whether the limit increases or decreases.
What registration problems have Barca had? And how did they fix them?
Barca have had problems with their salary limit during every transfer window since the summer of 2021 — when senior players including Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique took temporary pay cuts to allow the registering of signings including Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero.
This was initially due to long-standing financial problems dating back to the previous presidency of Josep Maria Bartomeu.
Many clubs in similar situations are forced to take the hit: cutting spending and selling their best players. Under Laporta, Barca have preferred to find more creative and controversial ways of raising money that have helped them get around the rules, which are designed to ensure that all clubs live within their means.
Barca’s approach has included different ‘financial levers’. It started in 2022, with the sale of future TV rights money. The following year, the sale of a stake in the club’s Barca Studios media arm — which the club originally valued at €1billion but is now officially worth much less — helped add Ilkay Gundogan to the squad.
Twelve months later, Olmo was finally registered for the first half of the 2024-25 season as an emergency replacement for injured defender Andreas Christensen. Olmo was then only able to play the second half of that campaign due to Spanish government intervention, after La Liga questioned Barca’s initial plan to raise money by selling future VIP seat revenues at the Camp Nou while the seats had not been built.
Last summer’s biggest signings were also registered by unorthodox means: goalkeeper Joan Garcia by taking advantage of club captain Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s back operation, and Rashford via a personal guarantee from club directors. There was space for January 2026 loan signing Joao Cancelo due to another injury suffered by the unfortunate Christensen.
How much have they spent in recent years?
Barca’s spending has been much more controlled since the summer of 2022, when Lewandowski, Kounde, Raphinha and Pablo Torre were all signed for transfer fees, with Franck Kessie, Christensen, Hector Bellerin and Marcos Alonso arriving for free.
The biggest outlay during 2023-24 was €30million on Brazilian Vitor Roque. Next summer, Olmo was bought for €60m, and last year’s only senior arrival was goalkeeper Garcia from Espanyol for €25m.
Meanwhile, the books have been balanced by sales, usually unwanted squad members and youth prospects. Last summer, Barca actually made a small profit in the market after selling four youngsters for a combined income of just over €31million: Pau Victor to Braga, Dro Fernandez to Paris Saint-Germain, Alex Valle to Como and Torre to Mallorca.
However, the 2025-26 La Liga-winning squad was strengthened by bringing in loan players on sizable wages: Rashford from Manchester United, and Cancelo from Saudi club Al-Hilal for the second half of the campaign.
This means that Barca’s wage bill continues to be among the highest in world sport. According to UEFA figures, only PSG and Manchester City spent more on salaries than Barca’s €510million across European football in 2024-25.
Figures have not yet been released, but it will have been even higher during 25-26, especially considering Lamine Yamal’s bumper new deal, worth a potential €40million annually.
The Athletic reported in November that, even beyond Barca’s gross debt of €1.45bn, the club still owed notable sums from previous signings, including Raphinha (€42.3m), Olmo (€33.7m) and Kounde (€25.0m), as well as Vitor Roque (€17.2m), Ferran Torres (€13.8m) and Lewandowski (€11.3m), all of which has an impact on their permitted La Liga salary limit.
In his in-depth report, Chris Weatherspoon noted that a net €100.2m in transfer instalments was due to be paid during the 2024-25 season, further squeezing cash in the short term.
What’s La Liga’s view on Barca’s spending power now?
Earlier this month, in a gathering with local media including The Athletic, La Liga executive Javier Gomez hinted that Barcelona were well-placed to find themselves below their salary limit thanks to the progressive reopening of the Camp Nou, more instalments coming in from their VIP seating sales and the departure of Lewandowski.
Barca’s official salary limit fluctuated during the 2025-26 season, amid differences of opinion between La Liga and the club over that December 2024 sale of future revenues from VIP seats at the Camp Nou.
The limit fell by €112million last September, but rose by €81.5m in February to €433m. This was after La Liga accepted the validity of funds from that VIP seats deal.
Gomez also pointed out that La Liga’s salary limits consider how much a club is likely to raise from selling players each year.
These projections are based on an average of the last three summers — during which Barca took in just over €100million in sales. For that reason, Barca’s current limit includes a projection that they will raise around €35m this summer. If they don’t do that, the limit will fall accordingly. If it is more, the limit will increase.
Also worth noting is the fact that, as Barca used those rules around injuries to register Rashford and Cancelo this term, the cost of the salaries of both players will be deducted from projected revenues for 2026-27.
Additional reporting: Pol Ballús
