Chygrynskiy quits Barcelona for Shakhtar Donetsk

Ukrainian defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy has called time on a difficult year at Barcelona and returned to his old club Shakhtar Donetsk, the Spanish champions announced on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian side have agreed to pay 15 million euros for the 23-year-old — 10 million less than they received for him when he moved the other way for 25 million in August last year.

Chygrynskiy, who has 24 caps for Ukraine, joined Barca on a five-year contract but never properly settled and played just 14 times.

In spite of that, he returns home with World Club Cup and Spanish championship medals safely tucked away in his hand luggage.

Barcelona recently paid 40 million euros to Valencia for Spanish winger David Villa and club president Sandro Rosell told Catalan radio station RAC1 on Tuesday that the sale of Chygrynskiy was partly for economic reasons.

“It is a necessary move for the club, especially on the financial level to resolve several problems in the short term,” he said.

Barcelona have already banked 24 million euros from the sale last week of Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure to English side Manchester City.

Rosell also admitted that the proposed transfer of Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal is looking increasingly unlikely.

“The transfer of Cesc is becoming more complicated because there are a lot of expectations on the side of the sellers and that is not good news for Barcelona,” said Rosell, who has said he will not spend more than 40 million euros for the player.