Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed for the first time this summer that the Spanish La Liga club have made an official bid to Bayern Munich for Robert Lewandowski.
The Polish striker has publicly made his intentions of leaving Bayern Munich known after growing frustrated with the Bundesliga side. But despite Lewandowski’s public expression of goodwill towards Barca, the club and Laporta have never come out open to validate reports that they are in touch with the striker and his representatives.
But yesterday, Laporta confirmed that his club and Bayern Munich are in talks over a deal for Lewandowski.
“We have made an offer that they will be evaluating and we are waiting for the answer,” he said via Sportsmail.
Laporta also thanked the Polish striker for indicating publicly that he wants to sign for the club.
The Spaniard was speaking at the unveiling of former Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen—the second player the club have unveiled in a week.
However, he also warned that Barcelona cannot sign anyone else until they make further asset sales.
The Catalan side last week sold 10% of their TV rights earnings over the next 25 years to American investment firm Sixth Street Partners for £176million.
“These sell-offs are being referred to as financial ‘levers” Laporta said:
“When we activate the second lever, everything will begin.”
Laporta has admitted that the club needs to sell a further chunk of TV rights money and lease the club’s retail arm Barcelona Licensing and Merchandising (BLM). Doing both of those things would generate a further £425m to spend freely.
“We are working on getting the Financial Fair Play to sign players,” Laporta added.
As things stand, Xavi’s men can only purchase players if they sell players and even then they can only spend a fraction of the money they generate from player sales.
Meanwhile, Barca’s technical secretary Jordi Cruyff, who was also present at the unveiling of Christensen, admitted that Clement Lenglet’s move to Tottenham was almost complete.
The departure of Clement and the arrival of Christensen means the new arrival from Chelsea will compete with Gerard Pique, Ronald Araujo and Eric Garcia for a starting berth.
On Pique, Laporta said: “he is very clear about wanting to have a very good season. He is very motivated with the players who are arriving.”
