Barcelona missed out on the opportunity to sign Portuguese duo Joao Mario and Gelson Martins back in 2012, it is reported.
Sport report that the Catalans had the change to sign any two players from the youth team of Sporting CP in November 2012, as a result of the Portuguese club not being in a position to pay the half a million euros owed to Barca over the transfer of Jeffren Suarez the previous year.
Barca's sporting directors, led by Narcis Julia, opted to sign defender Edgar Le and midfielder Agostinho Ca – both would go onto play on for the club's B team but neither forced their way into the plans of the first team squad.
Two teenage Sporting star that the Blaugrana overlooked were Joao Mario and Gelson Martins – the latter of whom scored his side's goal at the Bernabeu on Wednesday, while Mario transferred to Inter this summer for 40 million euros after starring for his country at the European Championships.
