The seven reasons why Barcelona couldn't sign Matthijs de Ligt

OneFootball

Alex Mott·18 July 2019

The seven reasons why Barcelona couldn't sign Matthijs de Ligt

Matthijs de Ligt is officially a Juventus player.

After months of speculation, it’s the Bianconeri who have won the race for his signature, beating the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.

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But it was Barcelona who ran the Old Lady closest to landing De Ligt.

Ernesto Valverde’s side had highlighted the teenager as one of their main targets for this summer, but lost out to Juve for several reasons.

Marca, citing insiders at Camp Nou, have claimed that there were eventually seven reasons as to why they couldn’t get the De Ligt deal over the line, which were:

His wages. Agent Mino Raiola was asking for €12m per season – an amount Barcelona were unwilling to match.
Barcelona did not want to pay Raiola the kind of commission he was looking for.
The club were ultimately satisfied with their centre-back options.
Some at Barça believe that De Ligt isn’t up to the level required with the ball at his feet.
De Ligt wasn’t as eager to joins Barça as his Ajax team mate Frenkie de Jong.
There was not enough money to sign both De Ligt and Neymar.
Juventus have been persistent throughout the summer, keeping in constant contact with Raiola.

De Ligt will now travel with his new team mates to Asia, where they will partake in this year’s International Champions Cup.