Was Luis Diaz a target for Xavi? Liverpool beat Barcelona to him

The Spanish giants were unable to keep the Colombian even though he was a priority, a journalist said.

19/07/2022, 05:35 AM +00:00

Luis Diaz is the sensation on his landing in the Premier League, at a Liverpool side that understood his influence like no other and took advantage of it to win two of the four trophies they fought for until the end of last season.

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It was said many times that he had been followed from Jürgen Klopp's offices for some time and that it was a very tempting offer from Tottenham, for around 40 million euros, which precipitated his signing in January, in the winter market, when it is usual for big acquisitions to be made in the summer to start with a pre-season, as happened recently with Darwin Núñez.

Lewandowski and De Ligt

But what has only just been confirmed is that it was not just English rivals Diaz who were stalking him: FC Barcelona had gone all out for him and even had an agreement with the player. This was assured by journalist Gerard Romero, who said that the player's entourage already had an agreement on his joining the Catalan club, but that it was financial fair play that ruined the negotiation with Porto.

According to the source, "Barça had an agreement with Vlahović and Luís Díaz, but because of financial fair play and the 3x1 rule they couldn't sign them," he said on social media. History will tell that Vlahovic went to Juventus and Diaz would be Liverpool's key signing, while FC Barcelona spent 130 million euros on Lewandowski and De Ligt.