Rakuten, interested in collaborating again with Barça: New alliance in sight?

The FC Barcelona's stay in Asia, during the preseason tour, is being very productive from the sporting to the economic, even arising sponsorship interest in recent hours from an old acquaintance.

In this context, President Joan Laporta revealed Rakuten's desire to create new strategic ties with the club. Although it would not necessarily be an agreement similar to the one they had in the past (2017-2022 as the club's main sponsor), the Japanese company has expressed its intention to link its brand to the Blaugrana team again.

“Rakuten has expressed its interest in collaborating with Barça again. Their CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani, was instrumental in helping us solve the problem of the tour of Japan.”

Barça-Rakuten, an alliance that marked a complex era

Rakuten's first season as sponsor of the Catalan team was 2017/18. In that year, the Barcelona team won LaLiga and the Copa del Rey, while only losing three matches. 

That season represented Andrés Iniesta's last in the club and they were eliminated for the third consecutive year in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League, on that occasion against Roma by an aggregate of 4-4 (the away goal rule still applied).

Also, in 2018/19, Barça won the league competition, making it their 26th League title, while also conquering the Spanish Super Cup. However, the bad memory of that season comes due to the elimination in the semifinals of the Champions League, where they were eliminated by 4-3 on aggregate against Liverpool, after winning the first leg by 3-0.

Afterwards, in 2019/20, the Blaugrana team experienced one of their worst seasons in the last 20 years. The Barcelona team closed the year without achieving any title, in addition to being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Champions League by a scandalous 2-8 against Bayern Munich, in the middle of the pandemic.

Already for 2020/21, Barça was crowned champion of just one title, which was the Copa del Rey. This season also remembers the farewell of other legends such as Luis Suárez and Ivan Rakitic, in addition to the resignation of the club's presidency by Josep María Bartomeu.

Before the start of the 2021/22 season, Rakuten's last season as Barcelona sponsor, the team announced the impossibility of renewing Leo Messi's contract, for which he ended up leaving, this being one of the saddest episodes in the club's recent history. Rakuten paid 55 million net, plus variables, as the 'main sponsor' of the team.

But... What is Rakuten?

Rakuten, founded in 1997 and currently chaired by Hiroshi Mikitani, is one of the main e-commerce platforms in Japan, with more than 50 million registered users. Only Yahoo Japan surpasses its popularity as an online store. 

It should be noted that, for now, only approaches have been made for the Japanese company to maintain a new alliance with Barça, so it remains to be seen what the club's next moves will be in this section.