He could have played his role in the arrival of Kylian Mbappé, but the Blaugrana decided to take another direction.
Real Madrid announced the signing of the star on Monday evening, the culmination of a quest that lasted more than a decade. The Whites tried four times to recruit him, when he was a teenager at AS Monaco, at 18 when he left for Paris Saint-Germain, in 2022, then in 2024.
Barça came up empty
What is less known is that FC Barcelona also missed the opportunity to attack the French star, now from Madrid. Agent Josep Maria Minguella, who has been heavily linked with the club, told RadioMarca that Barcelona declined to pursue him in favor of Ousmane Dembele. His comments were reported by Sport.
“My son, who was in France, told me that Monaco was liquidating the team. So I spoke personally with the parents, the boy was 18 years old, and with Neymar leaving, he told me it would be a pleasure to go to Barça. I spoke to Barcelona about it and they told me that, for the same value, Ousmane Dembele suited them better. They thought the then Borussia Dortmund footballer was more suited to Barca’s way of playing. It’s a short story, but a sad one.”
It’s a story that has already been commented on by Minguella in 2022, and former manager Javier Bordas has also said that he tried to persuade the Blaugrana to sign Mbappé over Dembele in the past.
