AFC Bournemouth considers Kroupi non-transferable, and the French forward will not leave this summer.
Kroupi is one of the candidates to strengthen the Barcelona attack, but he will not leave Dean Court. Eli Junior Kroupi (born in Lorient in 2006) is seen as a replacement for Julián Álvarez and is highly favored on Barcelona's list of forward targets.
The former Lorient forward joined AFC Bournemouth for €13 million in February 2025, and his technical characteristics are very much to the liking of the sports department led by Deco. But Deco is not the only one interested in him; Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Bayern, and Manchester City have also been linked with him.
However, unless there is a fundamental change, Kroupi will not leave AFC Bournemouth – at least not this summer. AFC Bournemouth considers him non-transferable. Although the Premier League transfer market is flush with cash, with Chelsea paying €138 million for Morgan Rogers to Aston Villa and Manchester City paying €135 million for Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), it's not about the money.
This is a decision based on team planning and the club's development strategy. AFC Bournemouth's President of Football Operations, Tiago Pinto, believes that the French U21 international – who was previously rumored to represent Portugal in the World Cup – is central to the team's plans. This is not without reason. Last season, he became the highest-scoring U20 player in his debut Premier League season (13 goals).
AFC Bournemouth also has no need to sell. Last season, they generated a total of €310 million from player sales, involving Semenyo (Manchester City/€72 million), Zabarnyi (Paris Saint-Germain/€63 million), Huijsen (Real Madrid/€62.5 million), Kerkez (Liverpool/€46.9 million), Ouattara (Brentford/€42.8 million), Anthony (Burnley/€9.5 million), Billing (FC Midtjylland/€5 million), Travers (Everton/€4.6 million), Chris Mepham (West Brom/€1.15 million), Joe Rothwell (Rangers/€400,000), and Luis Sinisterra's loan (Cruzeiro/€2.5 million).
In fact, as Tiago Pinto revealed in an exclusive interview with Marca in January this year, AFC Bournemouth hopes to shed the label of a "selling club": "We won't need to sell so many players in the coming years. Our idea is to establish ourselves in the Premier League, allowing us more room to dream."
Therefore, any team wishing to acquire Kroupi will likely have to wait. After witnessing Iraola and Senesi leave on free transfers this summer when their contracts expired, AFC Bournemouth's door has closed – and not just for Barcelona.
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