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Barcelona were close to this pair before Real Madrid
Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has revealed that the Catalan club were close to signing Real Madrid stars Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe before they moved to the Spanish capital.
Real Madrid, led by then-coach Zinedine Zidane, announced in 2017 that they had reached an agreement with Flamengo to sign Vinicius, with the deal set to close a year after the player turns 18.
Since then, Vinicius has become one of the key players in Real Madrid’s success in La Liga and the Champions League, and has become one of the world’s most highly rated strikers.
Bartomeu told ESPN Deportes that Barcelona had made progress in negotiations with the Brazilian ahead of his move to Real.
“Vinicius was interested in the club. We spoke to his family and agents and there was already a pre-arrangement. Maybe Real Madrid made a better offer than Barcelona and that’s why they managed to sign the player.
Bartomeu also said that he also spoke to another Real Madrid star before moving to Spain, referring to Kylian Mbappe when he was a Monaco player.
The former president of “Barcelona” continued. “Monaco were asking for huge amounts of money and Barcelona were able to pay them at the time.
He continued. “I remember talking to Mbappe’s father twice, but PSG put a lot of pressure on Monaco and I think Mbappe also preferred to go to Paris Saint-Germain because it’s a French team.
Bartomeu concluded his statements by saying: “We were also negotiating with Ousmane Dembele, who was the preferred choice of the technical staff at the time,” noting that the French winger eventually joined the Catalan outfit to replace Neymar da Silva’s departure in 2017.
