FC Barcelona and Chelsea announced an agreement on Friday for the transfer of Giulia Dragoni. The 19-year-old Italian midfielder has signed a four-year deal with the English club.
Neither club has disclosed the fee. Mundo Deportivo puts it at between €500,000 and €600,000 plus add-ons, which would rank it among the biggest sales in the history of Barcelona’s women’s section.
There is a peculiarity to the sale: Dragoni leaves without ever having settled in the first team. She was registered with Barça B and had spent the past two seasons on loan at Roma, so the transfer announcement bids her farewell from the reserve side.
She arrived in Barcelona in January 2023, aged 16, from Inter. In 2023/24, the quadruple-winning season, she made her first-team debut and played ten matches, scoring once. In July 2024 she renewed until 2027 and left on loan for Roma.
In Italy she flourished. She won back-to-back Scudetti with the Roman club and in 2025/26 produced seven goals and four assists, numbers that earned her the Serie A Midfielder of the Year award.
She has been a full Italy international since 2023, with 25 caps, and started three matches at that year’s World Cup, where she was the tournament’s second-youngest player.
Chelsea, who describe her as “one of the best young midfielders in world football”, have handed her the number 16 shirt.
The move adds to the summer exodus at Barcelona: Alexia Putellas, Ona Batlle, Mapi León and Salma Paralluelo all left when their contracts expired. Unlike those departures, every one of them free, Dragoni’s brings in a fee.
Barcelona open their Liga F campaign in late August against Costa Adeje Tenerife.
