Barcelona received an offer of €100 million for youngster Ansu Fati from Manchester United last week, with the Premier League side ready to drop their interest in Jadon Sancho for the forward.
On Saturday Barca president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, claimed that someone was ready to make 17-year-old Fati the third most expensive teeneager of all time, behind only Kylian Mbappe and Joao Felix.
The club chief didn't confirm who it was but according to Spanish outlet SPORT it was United. The paper claims that superagent Jorge Mendes acted as a broker for the deal with the Premier League side ready to offer €100 million instead of trying to sign Sancho.
According to the report Mendes called to see how much Barcelona wanted for the player as several Premier League clubs were interested.
Advert
The agent, who famously works closely with Wolves, was told that the teenager wasn't for sale before he reminded the club that the player has a €170 million release clause in his contract but the club didn't feel anyone would pay that much.
Mendes then returned with another call, about 10 days ago, with the bid from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team which then had to go to the board but they rejected the deal, again thinking the player isn't available at any price.
Fati, and his representatives, are worried about the amount of first team football that he might get going forward, especially with such strong competition.
Advert
As well as Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann in the front three, the Guinea-Bissau born player also has to compete with Martin Braithwaite and Ousmane Dembele and the Spanish champions have been linked with a big money move for Lautaro Martinez from Inter.
Martinez could cost the Spanish side around the same amount of money they rejected for their young prospect and they are reportedly wanting to offload players to be able to afford the exciting striker.
Fati is expected to take part in the Segunda B play-offs for Barcelona B in July but will officially become a first team player after that and his contract will then have a €400 million release clause.
Advert
So far this season the youngster has scored four goals in 16 appearances in the league for Barca, with seven starts, and has also scored in the Champions League.
United have been heavily linked with a move for Borussia Dortmund forward Sanco are are expected to need to bid in the €100 million region to bring the England forward back to the country.
Topics: Football News, Manchester United, Barcelona, Transfer stories, Transfer rumours, Premier League, Ansu Fati, Transfer news, Jadon Sancho, La Liga, Transfer reports