Former Barcelona chief reveals how close they were to signing Mbappe, Neymar

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Former Barcelona director Javiar Bordas has lifted the lid on Barcelona’s transfer dealings over the last few years.

According to the former director, La Liga giant Barcelona were very close to signing Kylian Mbappe in the summer of 2017. He claims that the French international was excited to join the Spanish club and Barcelona offered 100 million euros for him.

Real Madrid were keen on the player at the time as well but Mbappe believes he would get more first-team chances at Camp Nou. However, the attacker ended up signing for Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint Germain.

“We tried to bring both Mbappe and Dembele together, Mbappe was excited to come to Barcelona when Neymar left as he realised that he could have been surplus to requirements at Real Madrid due to the attacking options Los Blancos had,” he revealed. “Monaco also preferred to sell him to another club that wasn’t a direct rival. I offered 100 million euros in a final attempt to lure him to the Camp Nou, but he ended up at PSG on the penultimate day of the transfer window.”

Bordas also claimed that Neymar was close to re-signing for Barcelona but Paris Saint-German refused to do a deal in the last moment.

Apparently, the French outfit wanted 130 million Euros along with Todibo, Rakitic and Dembele for the Brazilian international.

Barcelona were prepared to pay 110 million Euros along with the three players. In order to make the move possible, Neymar’s father offered to pay the remaining 20 million euros but the French club backed out of the transfer in the last moment.

The Spanish outfit were also interested in signing the Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois but they ended up signing Ter Stegen.

One has to wonder how good the side would have been if they had managed to sign Mbappe and Neymar. Barcelona would have had the best front three in world football without a doubt.