Barcelona have confirmed that midfielder, Rafinha has joined Inter Milan on loan until the end of June.
The deal also includes a purchase option and the Serie A club can land the Brazilian permanently for €35 million plus €3m in variables.
Barcelona FC said in a statement on Monday: “FC Barcelona and FC Internazionale Milano have reached an agreement for the loan of the player Rafinha until June 30th 2018.
“FC Internazionale has an option to purchase the player for 35M euros plus 3M euros in variables, which must be confirmed before the end of the current season.”
Rafinha only made his first appearance of the season in the 1-0 Copa del Rey quarter-final first-leg loss to Espanyol last week.
Barca’s club-record signing of Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool, along with last year’s arrival of winger Ousmane Dembele, further limited chances in Ernesto Valverde’s first team for Rafinha, who progressed through the club’s youth system along with brother Thiago Alcantara, now at Bayern Munich. Rafinha made his debut in 2011 after having signed with the club at age 13.
Valverde had recently conceded Rafinha was on his way out at the club, admitting to the media the midfielder had permission from the club to sort out his situation.
“I spoke to him about his injury and my opinion was that he needs to play minutes and in Barcelona it would be complicated after our last market movements,” Valverde said Saturday.
“Our idea is to let him to play after a long time off and if he played against Espanyol it was because I thought he could help.”
Rafinha will be hoping he can play regularly at Inter after returning to full fitness following an awful spell with injuries at the Camp Nou.
Luciano Spalletti’s side are currently fourth in the Serie A, behind league leaders, Napoli, Juventus and Lazio.
