{"id":17559,"date":"2026-05-06T00:10:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17559\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:10:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:10:43","slug":"al-hilal-deny-any-interest-in-barcelona-captain-not-requested-the-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17559\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Hilal deny any interest in Barcelona captain: &#8216;Not requested the signing&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speculation around Raphinha and a potential move to Saudi Arabia has taken a sharp turn, with fresh clarity emerging from within the Al Hilal camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In recent days, reports had suggested that the Barcelona winger was the <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/saudi-clubs-ready-to-pay-e90m-for-barcelona-captain-with-e30m-salary-package\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">subject of a major offer<\/a>, with Al-Hilal positioned as the driving force behind the move. However, those claims have now been dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>The rumours had quickly gained traction, largely fuelled by the growing trend of high-profile players being linked with lucrative Saudi deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Raphinha\u2019s name was the latest to be added to that list, with talk of a multi-million-euro proposal doing the rounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But according to those close to the situation, the story never truly developed beyond speculation.<\/p>\n<p>Denying Saudi talks<\/p>\n<p>The denial came from Federico Pastorello, who represents Al Hilal manager Simone Inzaghi.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking recently, as relayed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/es\/noticias\/barca\/agente-simone-inzaghi-tecnico-hilal-129846737\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">SPORT<\/a>, Pastorello made it clear that the manager has not requested the signing of the Barcelona forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fc-barcelona-v-newcastle-united-fc-uefa-champions-league-2025-26-round-of-16-second-leg-2-3-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"Raphinha of FC Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-195815\"  \/>Al-Hilal were never interested in Raphinha. (Photo by Alex Caparros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that the reports of negotiations or formal offers were inaccurate and should not be taken seriously.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInzaghi has not requested the signing of Raphinha Diaz, as has been rumoured in recent hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He went even further by dismissing the idea of ongoing talks or formal proposals, adding strong clarity to the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Emphasising that the reports were baseless, Pastorello insisted that everything being said about negotiations or official offers was simply not true.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInzaghi has decided to postpone all matters relating to new signings or the list of potential departures until the end of the current season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is, Inzaghi does not want the transfer market to distract a team focused on the final stretch of the championship,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>As far as Barcelona are concerned, they know that Raphinha remains settled at the club, but there is an understanding that decisions about his future may soon need to be made.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speculation around Raphinha and a potential move to Saudi Arabia has taken a sharp turn, with fresh clarity&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,94],"class_list":{"0":"post-17559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-fc-barcelona","11":"tag-raphinha"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}