Former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu has claimed that the Spanish La Liga club had the opportunity to sign Kylian Mbappe in 2017 but they decided to sign Ousmane Dembele instead.
The Spanish giants paid a fee of around £124 million to sign the French winger from Borussia Dortmund but he has not been able to live up to the expectations because of his consistent injury problems.
On the other hand, Kylian Mbappe has developed into one of the best players in world football with Paris Saint-Germain.
Barcelona will undoubtedly be disappointed to have missed out on a world-class player like mbappe.
Apparently, the club were keen on the World Cup winner but Ernesto Valverde and his coaching staff recommended the signing of Dembele instead because they believed that the Dortmund winger would be a better fit and he would add some much-needed width to the side.
“[Mbappe’s] signing was on the table, but the coaches preferred Dembele because they wanted a player to open the field,” Bartomeu said on Esport3, as reported by AS.
Passing up the opportunity to sign up Kylian Mbappe is not the only transfer blunder Barcelona have made in recent seasons and they’re struggling as a result of several poor decisions in the transfer market.
The Spanish club decided to fork out a massive £145 million fee for the Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho as well and the Brazilian is yet to hold down a regular starting berth at the club after three years.
Mbappe is expected to be on the move at the end of this season and it will be interesting to see if Barcelona are prepared to try their luck this time around.
