£135 million superstar agrees to join Real Madrid, Barcelona to sell Coutinho to fund move for €180 million superstar and more: Transfer Roundup, 10 January 2019

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified May 02, 2019 05:44 GMT

Barcelona to sell Coutinho to fund Neymar transfer

Coutinho arrived at Barcelona last winter amid huge fanfare for a whopping €140 million. After initially hitting the ground running, he seems to have pulled up with his popularity and reputation hitting an all-time low over the past month or so.

Now, according to Evening Standard, Barcelona is ready to drop the guillotine on Coutinho if that'll help them facilitate enough funds to re-sign Neymar. Neymar had joined PSG from Barcelona in the summer of 2017 for a world-record €222 million.

Coutinho was expected to either fulfil the void left by Neymar or the one left by Iniesta. However, he couldn't reach the standards expected of him and now finds himself playing for his future at the Camp Nou after making his dream move.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Nishant Jayaram