The swap deal involving Miralem Pjanic and Arthur Melo was one of the most important deals done by either Barcelona or Juventus in the summer of 2020, and whilst it was a move with a clear financial intention behind it, the numbers involved have now been revealed.
Neither player has benefited from the move from a footballing perspective, and with the season reaching a close it can now be said that it hasn’t been good sporting business from anyone.
Even Andre Cury, who was previously part of Barcelona‘s technical secretariat, has described the transfer as an aberration.
Barcelona let a 24-year-old midfielder leave in order to gain experience and an immediate performer in the 31-year-old Pjanic.
In the end, Barcelona paid 60 million euros for the Bosnian and Juventus paid 72 million euros for the Brazilian.
It saw Los Cules gain a total of 12 million euros, plus a further five million in bonus payments, and it was the only way in which Barcelona could balance their accounts by the end of June.
On the pitch, Pjanic has played just 28 matches in all competitions and has been a starter in only 13 of them. Furthermore, in the biggest match of the season against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, he was used for a grand total of 11 minutes.
Arthur‘s numbers are similar, playing a total of 24 matches, and his displays have been inconsistent, showing that transfers done solely for economical reasons are rarely the best footballing moves a team can make.
