Brazilian international, Paulinho Bezerra, who has been key in Brazil’s successful World Cup campaign to date, has an enticing offer on the table from a Chinese Super League team. Barcelona have known about this for a while and they’re relaxed about the situation. José Paulo Bezerra Maciel Júnior, commonly known as Paulinho, born 25 July 1988) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Spanish club Barcelona and the Brazil national team.
The interested team is unknown at this point but Barcelona want to meet with the player’s agent before making a decision. With Paulinho having a good World Cup campaign his value has increased and he could fetch up to as much as €50m. That, for a player who this month will turn 30, isn’t a bad price at all.
There are sources which claim that Barcelona will see a return on their investment of €40m from last summer and, should a €50m offer be put towards the club, they’d even make a €10m profit on Paulinho. For Ernesto Valverde, who needs to give his ‘OK’ to any potential exit, he would want an able replacement to come in for the Brazilian.
There aren’t many great midfielders available on the market, nor is Barcelona’s poor economical situation helpful when it comes to bringing in top tier talent. Selling Paulinho would mean they’d need to bring in a strong midfielder, who is no slouch and can get into the opposition’s penalty area to cause damage.
One of the reasons to sell Paulinho is that it would free up a non-EU spot in the squad. At the moment Philippe Coutinho, Yerry Mina, Paulinho and (very soon) Arthur will see the squad have four, when only three are permitted to be named in the squad for next season.