Barcelona paid €30 million for Francisco Trincão in 2020. They got €18 million back across two transactions with Sporting CP. And now Sporting is about to sell the player for potentially three times that amount — without owing Barça a single cent.
That's the deal, in all its painful simplicity.
The €30M gamble that never paid off
The story starts in the chaotic post-COVID summer of 2020, when Barcelona signed Trincão from Braga as one of those investment-in-the-future moves clubs make when they want to feel smart about spending money. He was 20, Portuguese, technically gifted, and represented by Gestifute. Everything checked out on paper.
What didn't check out was the environment waiting for him. Ronald Koeman's public war with the board. A packed forward line. The kind of pressure that quietly swallows young players whole. Trincão managed 43 appearances in his single season at Camp Nou — 3 goals, 2 assists — before Barcelona shipped him out on loan. First to Wolverhampton, where things didn't click. Then to Sporting, where they did.
How Sporting exploited Barcelona's desperation
Sporting bought 50% of Trincão's rights for €7 million in 2023. That felt like a bargain at the time. But the real business was done a year later. With Barcelona scrambling to register players for LaLiga and needing immediate cash flow, Sporting came back to the table and renegotiated aggressively. They bought the remaining 50% for just €11 million — a figure that, per Foot Mercato, was accepted because Barça needed that money right then and there to comply with financial fair play regulations.
Total recovery on a €30 million outlay: €18 million. A loss of €12 million in raw transfer fees. Not catastrophic in isolation. But the real cost is what comes next.
Trincão is now worth far more than what Barça ever got
At 26, Trincão has become one of the most productive wingers in Liga Portugal. According to Foot Mercato, this season he's recorded 10 goals and 12 assists in 32 appearances across all competitions for Sporting, including 4 goals and 2 assists in the Champions League (per UEFA.com). Transfermarkt pegs his market value at €35 million as of December 2025.
According to Spanish outlet Sport, Sporting are preparing to extend Trincão's contract — currently running until 2027 — while keeping his release clause at €60 million. The plan is transparent: sign the extension, then sell this summer at maximum value. Manchester City, Bayern Munich and AC Milan have all inquired in recent months, per Foot Mercato.
If Sporting sell him for anything close to that €60 million clause, every euro stays in Lisbon. Barcelona won't see a cent.
The real lesson here
It would be easy to say Trincão simply wasn't good enough for Barcelona. Plenty of players don't work out at big clubs. But that's not quite what happened. What happened is Barcelona bought a talented young player, put him in an impossible situation, gave up on him far too early, then sold him at a steep discount because they were too broke to wait.
That's not a scouting failure. It's an institutional one. And Sporting, who have built a reputation for exactly this kind of shrewd deal-making under Frederico Varandas, played it perfectly. They spotted a player Barcelona couldn't afford to develop, bought him cheap, and are now set to cash in at a price that makes the whole thing look almost unfair.
For Trincão, it's vindication. For Barça, it's another entry in a growing list of players sold low who went on to thrive elsewhere. The kind of list that, sooner or later, starts telling you something.
