La Liga 2016/17: Barcelona to sue Santos after Gabigol was sold to Inter Milan

Gabriel Barbosa shined for Brazil in their Gold medal winning Rio Olympic campaign

La Liga champions Barcelona are about to sue Brazilian giants Santos, if reports in Brazil are to be believed. The Catalan giants are miffed about the transfer of Gabriel ‘Gabigol’ Barbosa to Inter Milan, as they claim they had the first option over the talented starlet after agreeing a deal in 2013.

However, Santos has transferred to Inter Milan at the fag end of the transfer window for the princely sum of €25 million, leaving Barcelona empty-handed. According to Brazilian publication Globo Esporte, Barcelona are likely to raise a complaint with FIFA over the transfer and will additionally sue Santos for compensation.

The issue at hand is that Barcelona claim they had the first option over Gabigol, after negoatiating a right of ‘first refusal’ when the Catalans signed Neymar Jr. from Santos in 2013. Neymar’s transfer has already been a cause of huge problems for Barcelona, with allegations of tax fraud being currently investigated, and the same deal has seen them miss out on Gabigol.

For their part, Santos claim that they had faxed over the relevant documents to Barcelona before agreeing the deal with Inter Milan on August 29, a day before Gabigol signed with the Nerazzurri on August 30. Barcelona claim that the documents lacked crucial details and thus did not grant Santos the rights to sell the Brazil international.

Thus Barcelona are claiming that they should be paid some sort of compensation.

Barcelona’s transfer window has been hit and miss

This is not the first time that Barcelona have signed a pre-agreement with a club over the transfer of a potetial superstar. The Catalans also had an agreement with Juventus, signed a year earlier, that they had first option over Paul Pogba. However, Barcelona opted against signing the Frenchman, opting to sign Andre Gomes instead, thus affording the chance for Manchester United to make Pogba the world’s most expensive player of all time.

Much like Real Madrid, Barcelona intitally endured a difficult transfer window by their own admission, as they struggled to attract forward players due to the presence of MSN, losing out on Nolito and Gabigol. However, the La Liga champions have strengthened with the return of Denis Suarez and the purchase of Paco Alcacer and Andre Gomes, which ought tot satisfy manager Luis Enrique.