Barcelona have had more failures than successes in the transfer market since receiving €222 million from Paris Saint-Germain for Neymar in 2017. Their spending in the aftermath of that world-record transfer was erratic and yielded little immediate return.
Over €300m was invested in Philippe Coutinho, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele in the immediate aftermath of Neymar’s departure. Only Dembele remains at the club, with the other two players moved on at a massive loss.
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There have been other eyebrow-raising signings for a multitude of reasons: €7m on Matheus Fernandes, who would later sue the club; Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jeison Murillo on loan; snapping Malcom away from Roma only to offload him the next summer; and dubious swap deals involving Neto, Jasper Cillessen, Arthur Melo and Miralem Pjanic.
At the other end of the scale, Ronald Araujo and Pedri were picked up for cheap transfer fees and have blossomed into key first-team players, Andreas Christensen signed as a free agent last summer while Frenkie de Jong and Robert Lewandowski are so far proving value for money.
Given no transfer is the same, it’s difficult to scientifically rank the success of Barca’s incomings since Neymar left, but this list attempts to bring some kind of order.
The ranking takes into account:
Transfer fee paid: A player who cost more money will be expected to have had a bigger impact.
Net transfer fee / fee received: A player who left at a profit will be considered a better signing than one who left at a loss (in the case of players still at the club, their current market value will be considered).
Achievements and performances: What did they win? How many goals did they score? How many games did they play? How did they perform? Were they important to the team?
Longevity: Has the player spent several seasons at Barcelona or were they dispensed with after just a few months?
Araujo, for reference, is one of just two signings originally made for the B team to be included, along with Abde Ezzalzouli. The two have both had significant enough involvement with the first team to be considered.
We’ll start with the worst of Barcelona’s post-Neymar signings, right through to their best piece of business.
The Brazilian became Barca’s record signing in the wake of Neymar’s exit when, in January 2018, they paid Liverpool a fee rising to as much as €160m, though the initial fee was around €120m.
On a financial level, this transfer cannot be described as anything other than awful, and Coutinho eventually left for Aston Villa in 2022, first on loan and then for around €20m.
However, there were moments of promise on the pitch. There were 10 goals in his first 22 games and 11 the following season, but overall he did not get close to the form he had displayed at Liverpool. Perhaps the most comical thing about the whole Coutinho affair, though, besides the lost millions, were the two goals he scored against them while on loan at Bayern Munich as the Germans smashed Barca 8-2 in the 2020 Champions League.
Still at Aston Villa though, like at Barca, his star has waned after a promising start.
