Manchester United and Barcelona will face off on Thursday night in the Europa League, with plenty of history between the two sides. The main threat for Barcelona will likely by the Premier League player of the month for January, Marcus Rashford, but he could have been lining up on the other side.
According to MD, Rashford was on the verge of a move to Barcelona. in 2019, with his United contract expiring, Barcelona’s General Director Pep Segura met with Rashford’s agents on three occasions to discuss a deal which would have involved Rashford leaving on a free in 2020.
However with almost everything agreed, Rashford backed out of the move. The words used by Catalan daily were that Rashford was beset by ‘vertigo’ – concerned by making such a large change in his life, he took a step back from the precipice. Rashford had doubts about his ability to adapt to a different culture, language, football and team.
This was during a period in which Barcelona were looking at a number of forwards in order to replace Luis Suarez, at the time 32. Harry Kane, Rodrigo Moreno, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Luka Jovic were all scouted, but Barcelona eventually opted to sign Antoine Griezmann, who had communicated again that he might be interested in a move.
While it might have been Rashford who backed out, seeing how Griezmann’s deal ended up transpriring, it will likely be Barcelona that have the most regrets. The Blaugrana would go another three years before finding another central striker capable of taking on the pressure.
