Barcelona fell prey to a scam during the signing of Polish striker Robert Lewandowski.
The Spanish club was allegedly deceived into sending €1 million (£830,000) to a fraudster, who masqueraded as working with Lewandowski’s agent.
Barca signed Lewandowski from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022 for an initial fee of €45m (£37m). The Polish striker has banged in 71 goals in 106 matches for Barcelona since then to prove his worth to the team.
Spanish outlet Cadena SER reported that the club received an email purportedly from Lewandowski’s agent, Pini Zahavi, during the transfer.
The email instructed the club to make a €1 million payment to Zahavi’s commission, followed by demands for two separate transfers totaling €250,000 (£208,000).
The €1m payment had been requested to have been paid into the bank account of a lawyer instead of Zahavi, with the email providing details of the account.
Barcelona reported the payment to a Bank of Cyprus account, which was subsequently frozen due to the account being newly opened.
The club faced further pressure with another email urging them to convince the bank to unfreeze the payment or risk facing repercussions from FIFA, the governing body of football.
Ultimately, the bank account was closed after the bank became suspicious of the transaction and the alleged scam was uncovered.
Officials from Barcelona admitted to Cadena SER that they had been deceived, and the funds had been recovered.
Zahavi disclosed to the same publication that Barcelona reached out to him one month after the transfer to inquire if he had received the payment.
The agent told the club he was unaware of the lawyer and that the email had not been from him.
Barcelona contacted Zahavi once more after it was verified that the email and bank account were not linked to him.
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