Football News: Raphinha gives Barcelona 48 hours ultimatum

The right-winger from Brazil is Barcelona's top goal this summer, and despite genuine interest from clubs like Chelsea, he has chosen to play for the Blaugrana and reject all other offers.

Camp Nou made their final offer of €55 million ($56 million) for Raphinha before the weekend. The Brazilian international, eager to determine his future, has finally received a competitive offer from Barcelona.

Although this is undoubtedly less than Chelsea's $66 million ($55 million) offer from last week, it is now thought that Barcelona's offer will exceed that sum with add-ons.

With Barcelona finally able to match Chelsea's offer for the Brazil winger, the Raphinha transfer drama is about to end.

Leeds United must now engage in negotiations with Barcelona, the team Raphinha prefers to join after reaching a personal agreement with them in May.

Meanwhile, despite expressing interest early in the transfer window, Arsenal is all but running.

Due to these factors, Raphinha might arrive in Catalonia as soon as Monday to finish his physical, sign his contract, and then be introduced at Camp Nou.

Raphinha is assumed to sign a five-year contract with the La Liga giants and will overtake other highly anticipated players like Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich and Bernardo Silva of Manchester City as coach Xavi Hernandez's flagship signing of the summer transfer window.

Leeds United & Raphinha's ultimatum to Barcelona

Leeds United gave Barcelona a deadline because they didn't want to send Raphinha on a pre-season tour of Australia only to have him change teams upon his return or have to leave for the UK early.

The Porto Alegre native might even travel to the United States with his new team to watch a Clasico match against fierce rivals, Real Madrid, if the deal is finalized in the next few days.

Is Raphinha affordable for Barcelona?

Barcelona entered the summer with a debt of almost €600 million (£508 million/$611 million). Despite some progress in selling some of their television rights, they are still in a bad financial situation.

Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen, two recent additions, have been able to be unveiled, but neither can yet be registered unless additional money is raised.

In light of this, they have offered Leeds an offer that would allow them to pay the amount in instalments for years rather than all at once.

The initial sum they would agree to pay would also be less than what Chelsea is proposing, with more of Barcelona's offer consisting of add-ons contingent upon Raphinha achieving particular goals at Camp Nou.

Additionally, it was previously believed that Raphinha and Ousmane Dembele couldn't play together and that the Frenchman, whose deal with Xavi's team expired after June 30, wouldn't stick around if his Brazilian positional opponent was signed.

On Friday night, there were indications that Dembele was finally prepared to accept a two-term contract, but the club must approve it.