Barcelona have twice been thwarted in their attempts to sign defender Stefan de Vrij who is now at Inter, report Calciomercato.
The attempts to land the Dutch international have both come in the last two years, according to Fabrizio Romano, with the first attempt whenever the defender’s contract at Lazio expired in the summer of 2018.
However, on that occasion the now 27-year-old decided instead to join the Milanese giants, but it did not put off the Blaugrana returning with a fresh attempt this summer.
It is claimed that preliminary talks were even held between the parties and the Catalan club were preparing to put together a €50m package to land the defender.
However, despite receiving the green light from Barca boss Ernesto Valverde, no bid was ever made due to Inter’s stance of refusing to sell their prized asset, with new Coach Antonio Conte reportedly a big fan.
Barcelona have Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti and Clement Lenglet among their list of central defenders.
