Football News: Barcelona snatches Jules Kounde from Chelsea 

Jules Kounde, a defender from Sevilla, has been signed by Barcelona ahead of Chelsea for a base price of €50 million ($50m/£42m) with add-ons of roughly €50 million. He is anticipated to agree to a four-year deal until 2026.

The 23-year-old Kounde was the target of multiple offers from Chelsea last summer, and after last week, reports indicated that a transfer to the English team was imminent.

According to reports, Barcelona increased their interest in the center-back over the weekend, and coach Xavi Hernandez's desire to get the transfer done was a significant factor.

Barcelona beats the competition again to secure a signing.

Last summer, Chelsea came quite close to signing Kounde, but Sevilla ultimately decided not to sell him.

The extra time he spent on the market allowed the defender to move to Barcelona, his first choice.

Barcelona has beaten Chelsea to the signing of a player twice this offseason. They also acquired Raphinha from Leeds United after the West London club, and the forward's agent agreed on a price.

Robert Lewandowski, who joined the Blaugrana from Bayern Munich for €45 million earlier this month, was also the subject of a bid from Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, according to Barcelona president Joan Laporta in an interview from last week.

Following the additions of Pablo Torre, Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen, Raphinha, and Lewandowski, Kounde became Barcelona's sixth summer acquisition.

After three years in Spain with Sevilla, where he made 133 appearances and scored nine goals, the France international joins Barcelona.

He transferred from Bordeaux to Sevilla for about €25 million, and Sevilla is entitled to a share of the transfer money from his move to Camp Nou.

Barcelona's transfers this summer

Following Christensen, who joined Barcelona on a free transfer from Chelsea, Kounde is the club's second centre-back summer acquisition.

Xavi has several options at the back, including Ronald Araujo, Gerard Pique, and Eric Garcia; Kounde and Araujo can also play right back.

Selling 25% of Barcelona's domestic television rights to the investment company Sixth Street for the following 25 years for roughly €530 million has fueled the city's spending.

From the rights, Catalan clubs receive about 160 million euros a year.

However, to register all of their new additions as well as the new contracts signed by Sergi Roberto and Ousmane Dembele, Barcelona still needs to sell other players to return to within their LaLiga spending cap, which was -144m at the end of last season, the only negative cap in the league.

To give them time to find new clubs, Neto, Oscar Mingueza, Samuel Umtiti, Riqui Puig, and Martin Braithwaite were all excluded from the tour of the United States. Barcelona is also open to offers for other first-team players.