Barcelona reportedly fell victim to a scam during the transfer of Polish striker Robert Lewandowski. The Spanish club was allegedly tricked into transferring €1 million (£830,000) to a fraudster pretending to be linked to Lewandowski’s agent.
Barcelona signed Lewandowski from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022 for €45 million (£37 million). Since joining, the striker has scored 71 goals in 106 matches, justifying his transfer fee.
According to the Spanish outlet Cadena SER, during the signing process, Barcelona received an email that seemed to be from Lewandowski’s agent, Pini Zahavi. The email directed the club to transfer a €1 million (£830,000) agent fee, along with additional requests for two separate €250,000 (£208,000) payments.
The €1 million payment was supposed to go to a lawyer’s account instead of Zahavi’s, with the email including the relevant bank details. Barcelona transferred the funds to an account at the Bank of Cyprus, but the transaction was flagged as suspicious and subsequently frozen due to the newly opened account.
The club later received a follow-up email pressuring them to convince the bank to release the frozen funds or face being reported to FIFA. However, the account was closed after further investigation revealed the scam.
Barcelona officials confirmed to Cadena SER that they had been defrauded but managed to recover the money. Zahavi revealed that a month after the transfer, the club reached out to verify if he had received the payment, and he clarified that he was unaware of the lawyer and had not sent the email. Barcelona then confirmed that the email and bank account had no ties to Zahavi.