Transfer Centre

Liverpool 'have already received full Philippe Coutinho fee'

By Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter | 01 June 2021

Liverpool 'have already received full Coutinho fee'

Liverpool have reportedly been paid the full amount that Barcelona agreed to spend for the signing of Philippe Coutinho back in January 2018.

The 28-year-old left Anfield to join the Catalan club for an initial £105m, with an extra £37m to be paid in add-ons, seeing the fee rise to a total of £142m.

Barca's most recent economic reports stated that Liverpool were still owed around £35.5m for Coutinho, but according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, the Reds have now received the full amount for the Brazilian.

"Barcelona still technically owe the money to Liverpool, that is why is shows up as such in the accounts, but what happens is that the money is paid and Liverpool then send that on to the third party who has bought the debt," Maguire told the Liverpool Echo.

"Liverpool have received all the money owed for Coutinho, but Barcelona have not yet paid it all.

"While it is all fairly normal practice there is some question over what happens if Barcelona default on their payments, how will that impact Liverpool? That would be down to the terms of the deal with the third party."

Barcelona do have history of carrying out their business in a similar fashion, with the likes of Ajax, Valencia and Atletico Mineiro all previously agreeing to payments in this way involving the respective transfers of Frenkie de Jong, Neto and Emerson, who are all current players at Camp Nou.