He was supposed to be a Barcelona star, instead Coutinho moves to Qatar

Philippe Coutinho transferred to Barcelona in January 2018 for €135 million as a Premier League star. The offensive midfielder, who particularly excelled with his shots from outside the box, was set to shine alongside Lionel Messi, instead he will be moving to Qatar five years later.

After arriving at Barcelona, Coutinho didn’t do too badly at all. In his first six months, he started 22 games and scored a brilliant 9 goals and 7 assists. As a result of his form from Liverpool, such numbers were expected at Barcelona as well.

The Brazilian continued his great performances at the summer World Cup in Russia, where he was one of the leaders of the team, especially with Neymar. In the opening two games he scored a goal each time and Brazil looked unstoppable. Above all, the Canaries wanted to forget the debacle of the domestic championship. Unfortunately, they only reached the quarter-finals, where they were eliminated by Belgium, Coutinho registered an assist, but it was not enough to advance.

The next season he was part of the starting line-up of the Catalan big club. He didn’t have the numbers anymore, but in the company of Lionel Messi or Luis Suárez he wasn’t the main attacking ace. He started mainly on the left wing. At Liverpool, he was used to starting underneath the spike, where it suited him the most, especially considering he didn’t have the necessary speed to play pure wing.

The aforementioned season saw Coutinho return to Anfield Road. It wasn’t a pleasant visit for both him and Barcelona, as it was the famous Champions League semi-final rematch in which Liverpool won 4-0. At the very end of the season, however, the Brazilian could rejoice in the victory of Copa America, where he was one of the main driving forces of the team.

In the summer of 2019, Coutinho moved on loan to Bayern Munich, where he was instrumental in winning the Champions League and, of course, the Bundesliga. The player was rumored to be for sale from Barcelona, but the Bavarian club didn’t take advantage of the price tag at the time, which was expected to reach as high as €80 million. Mainly because of the club’s strategy, in which the 28-year-old Brazilian did not fit.

He spent the 2020/21 season on Barcelona’s bench. It was already clear at the time what a blunder the club had made by paying such a big price for the player. Especially considering the current financial situation of the club, I’m sure many members of the management regret it. The Brazilian was rescued by his friend Steven Gerrard, who was at the helm of Aston Villa in England.

In the English Premier League he was first on loan for half a season and last summer the clubs agreed on a sum of 20 million euros. Coutinho was happy to be freed from Barcelona, and still played under his old friend. Unfortunately, that didn’t last very long. The club did not do well under Gerrard’s management, and so he was sacked in October, and that was the end for Coutinho as well. The management called Emery and he didn’t bring the Brazilian in anymore.

The situation didn’t change in the summer and the Brazilian only started for a few minutes. Speculation about a departure began. Real Betis or Besiktas were interested in his services, surprisingly no Saudi Arabian team took part. The Brazilian eventually chose Qatar’s Al Duhail. According to Fabrizio Romano, the transfer will be confirmed in the coming days.

Source: Fabrizio Romano