Even though their financial situation has been far from great, FC Barcelona have been linked with a number of Manchester City players in recent years. They managed to sign a few of them, but they’ve mostly failed to land their targets.
In the summer of 2021,for instance, Barça were only able to sign free agents Eric Garcia and Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero, and couldn’t bring in Raheem Sterling, who was their primary target. Months later, they pulled off the signing of Ferran Torres, but couldn’t get the signature of Bernardo Silva.
It makes sense, since many of their targets were way above their budget. However, it looks like they had everything ready to sign another ‘Citizen’ this season until Pep Guardiola stepped in.
Pep Guardiola reportedly blockedJoão Cancelo’s move to Barcelona
According to Spanish outlet Sport, Barcelona had agreed on terms with Manchester City for the transfer of Portuguese right-backJoão Cancelo in winter, but Guardiola blocked the move.
Barça were reportedly aware that Pep’s relationship with Cancelo was broken, and therefore tried to seize the opportunity to strengthen at the position. However, for some reason it was their former coach who didn’t let the defender move to the Camp Nou.
Cancelo was eventually sent on loan to Bayern Munich, and Barcelona stuck to their options with Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, or Sergi Roberto performing as right-back.