Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has confirmed that the club tried to bring in Manchester City defender Joao Cancelo, but that Pep Guardiola’s side ruled out any chance of deal.
Cancelo ended up on loan at Bayern Munich in the second half of the season, and have a €70m buy option. While Cancelo is not expected to return to City this summer, neither are Bayern expected to pay that clause.
Xavi explained that they had given the go ahead of a loan deal, but that ultimately City did not want to loan him to the Blaugrana.
“We wanted Cancelo in January. They offered him to us and we accepted it. In the end they told us that Manchester City did not want to loan him to Barca,” he told Esport3 (via MD).
Equally they go on to say that Cancelo himself was not keen on a move to the Blaugrana.
With Barcelona still on the hunt for a right-back this summer, a loan move for Cancelo has been mentioned as a low-cost option. Whether anything in City’s mindset or Cancelo’s has changed is not certain, but it does not bode well for Barcelona’s chances of signing him. Xavi is in desperate need of a right-back for next season, with Jules Kounde not thrilled with being used there for much of this campaign.