Barcelona had rising Ligue 1 star in their sights but missed out due to financial struggles – Report | OneFootball

As a club, FC Barcelona is always more than ready to give opportunities to young players. After all, several of the club’s most prestigious and notable achievements have come thanks to youth products in the past. Even today, Barcelona remains committed to their youngsters.

However, the club does not like to limit themselves to only their own youth products. While the likes of Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi have already become superstars in the world of football and hail from La Masia themselves, Barça has also placed their trust in players like Pedri.

While not being from the club’s youth academy himself, Pedri was the ideal profile to be a Barcelona midfielder and the club took that gamble. Fortunately for La Blaugrana, that bet ended up paying off significantly, as the Spanish midfielder is now performing at a level very few come close to.

Interestingly, not too long ago, Barcelona Director Deco had another young talent on his radar as well. Desiré Doué, aged 19 now, currently plays for Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain and is one of the rising stars of the French league as he is seen as a future superstar in the making.

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However, Deco had this particular player on his radar previously and even had good reports from his former side Stade Rennais, as reported by SPORT.

Moreover, thanks to Deco’s good connections with the French club, one where his client Raphinha used to play back when he was an agent, his reports showed him that Doué would be a great fit for Barcelona.

Unfortunately, since this was around the same time as when Barcelona was following Nico Williams and Dani Olmo primarily, there were some financial limitations. Due to these restrictions and limited resources, Barcelona were reportedly unable to pursue the French winger’s signature properly.

Instead, PSG swooped in and signed the player in August 2024 for a sum of around €50 million. Barcelona, even if they had moved for him, would have offered a lower valuation than that and it would have likely had more a feasible payment method for La Blaugrana.

Moreover, knowing that Doué had great compatibility with Barcelona, the club remains unsurprised by his rise under Luis Enrique at PSG.

After all, Enrique is a coach who embodies the philosophy of Barcelona to a great degree, and Doué’s success under his management is simply confirmation that he did indeed fit a profile that the Catalan giants would have liked to have.