The five top signings of the new look FC Barcelona this summer

The five top signings of the new look FC Barcelona this summer

| AFP/FCB

With the signing of Koundé, FC Barcelona have invested 153 million in total to reinforce the squad

Last season's hardships, which saw FC Barcelona resort solely to zero-cost signings, are now history. A year ago, Eric Garcia, Memphis Depay and Sergio Agüero arrived as free transfers while Luuk de Jong arrived on a loan from Sevilla. This summer the club is making a big splash, following the signings in the last winter market which fetched them Aubameyang, Ferran Torres, Adama Traoré and Dani Alves. Xavi Hernandez now has a very competitive squad to pick from.

The arrival of Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessie, Danish centre-back Andreas Christensen, Brazilian winger Raphinha, Polish striker Robert Lewandowski and French centre-back Jules Koundé, whose signing was finally made official on Thursday, has once again raised the hopes of the fan base after a disappointing season by their standards.

The investment made so far in the five closed deals already stands at 153 million euros, and another 19 million euros could be added depending on variables. Two more signings are planned for the summer transfer market, Chelsea defenders César Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso.

Presently, Barça have managed to bring in five top-level signings that inject significant quality into the squad and give hopes for a promising future. These five reinforcements are set to be the key players for the team, and the overall quality of the squad is sure to give selection headaches to Xavi.

Kessie and Christensen are joining at no cost as they both arrived on a free from Milan and Chelsea, respectively. Barça moved early and it did not take long to convince them about Xavi's new project. FC Barcelona are on the front line of the transfer market and the new team looks confident of competing for titles once again.

In the last few weeks, the club have made three other signings with great difficulty, faced with competition from other clubs.

The signing of Raphinha was Barcelona's first triumph in the market because of the significant competition they had to face. Chelsea made it difficult for him until the last moment, just as they did now with Koundé. But Joan Laporta and his board played their cards well to come through on top.

The Brazilian joined Barçá for 58 million euros and 9 million more in bonuses. The next operation to be closed was also very complicated throughout due to the enormous resistance from Bayern Munich, but Lewandowski ended up signing for 45 million plus another five million in variables. An intermediate figure of 50 plus 5 million has now been paid to Sevilla for Koundé.

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