Transfers FC Barcelona | Xavi: “We said ‘yes’ to Cancelo in January”

After the departure of Héctor Bellerín in the winter transfer market, heading to Sporting de Portugal, Barça tried to reinforce itself on the right side in that same transfer window and the name of Joao Cancelo was on the table. The Portuguese was close to dressing as a blaugrana, but, finally, Manchester City refused to do so.

This has been confirmed by Xavi Hernández in an interview with TV3, the Catalan public television. The Barcelona technician has recognized that the portuguese was offered and the blaugrana club gave the go-ahead for his incorporation on loan in the month of January. There was even a meeting between Barça and the footballer.

Manchester City, however, after debating it internally, ended up opting for ‘no’ towards the departure of Joao Cancelo on loan, heading to the Spotify Camp Nou. The end is known to all: the defender left the Etihad Stadium because he was not part of Pep Guardiola’s plans and went to Bayern Munich on loan until the end of the season.

“We wanted Cancelo in January. They offered it to us and we said ‘yes’. In the end they told us that Manchester City did not want to give him up to BarçaXavi said.

The Bavarian club cannot and does not want to assume the final cost to obtain 100% of the player’s services, estimated at around 75 million euros. Reason for which, Cancelo will return to Manchester from June 30, although the ‘citizen’ club does not have him for the next course either.

future in the air

Thus, the team where Joao Cancelo will play during the next course remains a real unknown. Barça has not forgotten him, although, as Xavi said, the team’s priority when it comes to reinforcing itself will not be the right-back. For the Egarense it is more important to find a relief of guarantees in the pivot, after the departure of Busquets.

The price that City is asking for is 40 million euros, a lower figure than what they paid in 2019 when they hired him from Juventus: then City paid 65 million euros. Now, it is already somewhat amortized, so its price would be lower. His representative, Jorge Mendes, continues to work on finding a new destination for him.