Barcelona president Laporta left ‘stunned’ by £26m Man Utd transfer: ‘It’s a genuine bargain’
Barcelona president Joan Laporta can’t believe his luck in landing Marcus Rashford from Man Utd over the summer, according to reports.
The Red Devils allowed Rashford to leave Old Trafford in the summer transfer window on loan to Barcelona with the Catalan giants having a £26m option to make the deal permanent next summer.
After falling out of favour under Ruben Amorim, who claimed in January that he would rather play his goalkeeper coach than Rashford, Man Utd sent him on loan to Aston Villa for the second part of last season.
Rashford got off to a slow start at Barcelona with rumours that they could terminate the deal early but now he is finding his feet for the La Liga side.
The England international has three goals and four assists in his last seven matches in all competitions for Barcelona, including a well-taken finish as Barca lost 4-1 to Sevilla over the weekend.
And now the Daily Mirror claims that the Rashford deal over the summer has left Barcelona president Laporta and other members of the hierarchy ‘stunned’.
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Barcelona think they have secured themselves a ‘massive bargain’ and ‘reckon Rashford’s value will skyrocket again once he establishes himself at the Camp Nou’.
A Barca source told the Daily Mirror: “At the top of his game, Marcus Rashford is one of the best players in Europe. Barca have got themselves a genuine bargain. Marcus should be worth more than £60m in the current market.”
Speaking last week, former Barcelona striker Gary Lineker praised Rashford’s start at the Camp Nou after a tricky first few matches.
Lineker told The Rest Is Football podcast: “I think Marcus has started well at Barcelona. He’s getting a lot of football. People were saying, ‘he’s not going to get a game, he’s–.’
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“Obviously you’re always going to get little knocks and injuries to certain players, and he seems to be rotating quite a lot, but Marcus has started a lot of games in the Champions League. Of the three goals that Barcelona have scored, he scored two of them and assisted the other one– really good pass.
“Good start, I think it’s encouraging. You can see they really like him.
“Even at the weekend– I mean his assist at the weekend was in the league, it was a corner, but all the players ran to him. It’s a really good sign. You need that. I’m pleased.”
Touching on Rasmus Hojlund also doing well, Lineker added: “I know De Bruyne was brilliant in the game as well yesterday, but Rasmus Hojlund scored two goals. Everybody who is leaving Manchester United seems to be doing really well. But it just shows you, doesn’t it?”
