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Barcelona transfer news: Does RB Leipzig deal rest on Everton?
BARCELONA are keen to sign a midfielder before the summer is out but their hopes could rest on Everton playing ball in the transfer market.
Barcelona have been busy in the transfer market this summer, singing four players.
They also saw Andres Iniesta and Paulinho leave as manager Ernesto Valverde overhauled his midfield.
Barcelona are still looking to make one more signing in the transfer market, with Friday’s deadline day looming.
But the manager’s hopes could rest on Everton being willing to play ball.
According to reports earlier this week, Barcelona have shelved plans to sign Ajax midfielder Frenkie De Jong in order to chase RB Leipzig’s Kevin Kampl instead.
The Nou Camp giants will try to sign De Jong NEXT summer after Ajax held out strong resistance to a deal being done this week.
A move for Kampl is supposedly on the cards but Leipzig don’t want to lose their midfielder.
That is, unless they sign a replacement - and that is where Everton come in.
Everton are hoping to sell Ademola Lookman to RB Leipzig in a deal worth £25m (€28m).
And RB Leipzig themselves are open to a deal, with manager Ralf Rangnick saying he is keen to work with Lookman again after the player went on loan to Leipzig for the second half of last season.
"We'll see. Let's just wait another week," Rangnick said. "When you turn back time to the last day of the last transfer market, at 2pm we didn't even think about a loan of Ademola Lookman.
"It seemed impossible to get him. But four hours later we got the deal done. I said then that it wasn't a last-minute deal but a last-second deal.
"We don't plan to repeat this, because it was a very stressful situation for us. We'll just wait.
“When Everton wants to keep the player they will tell us. If not we'll see if there's a chance of still getting him."
Were Leipzig to sign Lookman then they may be tempted to take up Barcelona’s offer on Kampl and make a quick sale.
Kampl, 27, only joined Leipzig from Bayer Leverkusen last summer but is said to have caught Barcelona’s eye.