BARCELONA (AP) - FC Barcelona and Liverpool have agreed on Tuesday to sign a deal with Philippe Coutinho , who could be announced as the new Barca player on Friday, after the English club has signed a deal to replace him In the template, according to reports from Brazil.
The Brazilian, who will join Barça after the two games of his selection, will become the second most expensive in the history of football, only behind Neymar and with a price that is estimated around 191 million dollars ( 160 million euros), after the Liverpool-based company Fenway Sports Group accepted the latest proposal of the Spanish club, decided as it was to do everything possible to complete the operation.
Liverpool "has confirmed to Coutinho the agreement," Luis Augusto Monaco, a journalist who follows the Brazilian team in Porto Alegre, told ESPN that the English club has already decided to resolve the matter, convinced to end up improving the squad With the economic benefit left by the Brazilian footballer.
CONVINCED
Concentrated with the Seleçao, Coutinho has maintained constant contact with his representatives and according to Monaco his conviction "is total. He's been pushing for a few weeks to get the transfer, and here he takes for granted that he's done. "
Giuliano Bertolucci, agent and person of maximum confidence of the soccer player, solved in the last days the obstacles that were maintained in Anfield Road, beginning by a Jurgen Klopp that ended up to fold to the final decision when Liverpool assured to him that the money entered by the Coutinho's sale would be used to strengthen the squad.
With Bertolucci closely collaborated Kia Joorabchian, famed intermediary who has maintained close relationship with Liverpool since the signing of Mascherano to West Ham and considered a key character in the operation.
However, the official transfer is not expected to be a reality until Thursday, the last day of the market in England and when Liverpool, who closed the signing of Naby Keita for next year, concrete at least another addition, an indispensable condition For the coach net, who maintaining a neutral stance with Coutinho has not concealed his disappointment with the Brazilian player's way of acting.
Coutinho will become the fifth signing of Barça this summer, after Semedo, Paulinho, Deulofeu and Dembélé, to form a template in which remains the question of whether as insinuated the technical secretary Roberto Fernandez there would still be another incorporation.
The departure of Marlon to Nice, in condition of ceded, turns the central position, again, in protagonist. That could come as a surprise weeks after the negotiation with the Royal Society was broken by Íñigo Martínez, because there are doubts about Vermaelen and there is no unanimous opinion on Yerri Mina, who should arrive in January.
However, the large reinforcement operation is already in place. Paulinho was the first, Dembélé the second and Coutinho the third. In addition to Semedo and Deulofeu, Barcelona will have invested nearly $ 418 million (350 million euros) after entering the 265 mdd (222 m) of Neymar's march to PSG and the 4.7 mdd (4 m) Betis by Christian Tello.
The new Barça de Valverde is already a reality.
