Barcelona finally register Lewandowski

BARCELONA: Barcelona managed to register new signings Robert Lewandowski, Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen and Raphinha on Friday in time for their Liga opener against Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.

However, French defender Jules Kounde remains unregistered with La Liga.

Barcelona have spent 153 million euros on transfer fees alone to strengthen their squad, with Lewandowski the most notable new arrival from Bayern Munich.

That deal came a year after Barca were forced to let Lionel Messi go to PSG as the Catalan giants laboured under eye-watering reported debts of 1.35 billion euros ($1.39 billion).

Faced with severe limits on spending in order to comply with La Liga´s financial controls, Barcelona needed to raise money quickly to be able to invest in signings and, crucially, to register new players.