CHELSEA are fighting Barcelona’s 11th-hour attempt to sign Raphinha.
Blues owner Todd Boehly looked like he had bagged the Brazil winger after agreeing a £55million deal with Leeds.
Raphinha is at the centre of a transfer tug-of-war between Chelsea and Barcelona
But having seen off interest from rivals Arsenal, Boehly now faces the threat of losing out to Barcelona.
Raphinha’s agent Deco, who played for both Barca and Chelsea, was spotted at the Spanish giants’ offices on Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to engineer a move.
Raphinha, 25, always had his heart set on a switch to the Nou Camp.
But the cash-strapped Catalans need to raise money to meet Financial Fair Play rules and sign their No 1 target, Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski.
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Barca are close to selling Frenkie de Jong to Manchester United in a £67m deal, with £56m to be paid up front, and are also working on a £172m image-rights contract.
If they can quickly raise cash, then Chelsea face losing Raphinha, despite agreeing a £120,000-a-week, five-year deal with the Samba star.
Chelsea want to make Raphinha part of a new forward line alongside Raheem Sterling, who could leave Manchester City for £50m.
City are still hoping Sterling will accept a new contract but they will look at accepting the bid providing the price is right.
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If Chelsea fail to land Raphinha they could make a swoop to sign Ousmane Dembele.
The Barcelona winger is out of contract at the Nou Camp at the end of the month and has also been linked with a switch to Bayern Munich and PSG.
