Barcelona manager Xavi has said that he was set to sign Joao Cancelo in January, but a late change in Manchester City’s thinking saw him miss out.
Cancelo is about to return to the Etihad Stadium, after spending the second-half of 2022/23 on loan at Bayern Munich.
The Portugal international was something of a shock exit during the winter window.
It was suggested that the player was not happy with the amount of minutes he was getting.
City apparently felt there was potential for Cancelo to become disruptive, and so his loan exit was facilitated.
All happened pretty quickly. Just a few days after reports of interest from Bayern dropped, he had gone over to Germany and signed.
But it would seem Bayern were actually not the first club in for Cancelo.
Barcelona manager Xavi has given an interview with TV3 and said his side were close to landing him, but that City ultimately stopped it from happening.
He said: “We wanted João Cancelo [in January]. They offered him to us and we gave the approval. In the end, they told us that Man City did not want him to come to Barça. That is true..”
Cancelo ultimately went to Bayern, and has won the league title.
Bayern defeated Koln on Saturday, while Borussia Dortmund, who were top at the start of the day, only drew with Mainz.
Maybe Bayern Munich agreed to a higher option to buy clause on Man City full-back Joao Cancelo
It is interesting to hear Xavi claim that Cancelo was all set to join Barcelona.
Clearly in the end, City did not feel it was the right deal to do.
One can only think that maybe Bayern agreed to a higher option to buy clause. That clause is apparently around £62 million (via Goal).
Barcelona’s financial concerns have been well documented for some time now and so, maybe the potential for Bayern to actually buy Cancelo for £62 million was what swung it for City officials.
But it has been reported that the German giants are not going to trigger their option this summer.
There have been claims that City would take around £35 million for the full-back this summer. It remains to be seen if Barca can do a deal at that price.
