Liverpool are still feeling the benefits of Philippe Coutinho's sale to Barcelona more than two years on, with the Premier League champions set to get another €5m this coming season if the Brazilian plays 15 times.
Coutinho joined the Catalan side in January 2018 for a massive fee stuffed with add-ons following a five-year stint on Merseyside, but struggled for live up to expectations at a club which expected him to fill a deeper midfield role that he was used to.
His poor form saw him shipped to Germany on loan for a spell with Bayern Munich, but started fewer than half of the German champions' games in either the Bundesliga or their triumphant Champions League campaign, doing nowhere near enough to convince them to trigger his expensive buy clause.
Now returning to Barcelona and in the plans of new manager Ronald Koeman, Sport report that Liverpool will be due a payment of €5m should the attacker play 15 games this season – more or less lining up with a report from The Times last month which claims that Coutinho needs to reach 90 games for Barça (currently 76) to trigger the last €5m add-on.
Coutinho was on the market this summer once again, but the coronavirus-induced contraction of the transfer market reduced the already small number of teams interested in bidding for him. This week his agent, Kia Joorabchian, told talkSPORT that his client will remain, insisting: "Yes, he will play for Barcelona"
Joorabchian highlighted Koeman's role in keeping Coutinho, adding: "Koeman called him right after the victory in the Champions League with Bayern, he went the next day, and told him that he was completely in his plans and that he would like him to come back."
Source : 90min