Paris Saint-Germain Continues To Block Barcelona From Signing Key Chelsea Target
Jun 22, 2017 at 1:22 PM
French giants Paris Saint-Germain continues to block Barcelona’s attempts to sign Italian midfielder Marco Verratti, according to reports.
The 24-year old midfielder is considered as one of the best young central defensive midfielders in Europe and has drawn interest from a host of clubs including Premier League giants Chelsea alongside German champions Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
Spanish media outlet Sport reports that, the Blaugrana are trying to sign Verratti but PSG, who are financially backed by Qatari owners are in a position to control which players to sell. The Paris-based club is financially very stable at the moment and continues to grow enormously.
Despite having such huge financial power, PSG had failed to sign the likes of Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar but the big stars have not moved to the club as they desire to play in a bigger club. However, Barcelona also had found no success in signing PSG stars in recent years.
The Catalan club currently made Verratti their top transfer target for the summer. New manager, Ernesto Valverde is keen to have a central midfielder with impressive ball passing skills and Verratti is touted to his favoured option.
Verratti had also expressed his desire to leave the club as he was frustrated with the lack of results by PSG in the Champions League over the past few years. The club had scuppered their 4-0 lead against Barcelona last season as they lost the return leg by 6-1 in Camp Nou.
Earlier reports suggested the Italian had already asked the club that he is willing to leave but PSG are not ready to let their star move to another club this season. Barcelona had begun talks on a potential transfer for Verratti and are ready to shell out a massive 80 million euros to sign him.
However, the 24-year old will need to push a move away from the club as it looks highly unlikely for any club to lure PSG in selling their star players. Barcelona had a very bad history in getting their target players from PSG since the turn of the decade.