{"id":17240,"date":"2026-05-05T13:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17240\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T13:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:19:08","slug":"former-barcelona-president-lifts-lid-on-neymar-departure-and-failed-mbappe-move-we-made-an-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17240\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Barcelona president lifts lid on Neymar departure and failed Mbappe move: &#8216;We made an offer\u2026&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The fallout from Neymar\u2019s historic exit continues to offer new insight, with former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu now revealing how the club reacted, including a missed opportunity to sign Kylian Mbappe.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after previously discussing a <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/former-barcelona-president-reveals-club-received-bombshell-e400m-offer-for-messi-funds-from-an-arab-country-were-transferred\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">huge offer for Lionel Messi<\/a>, Bartomeu turned his attention to the moment Neymar left for Paris Saint-Germain in a record-breaking \u20ac222 million deal in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/cadenaser.com\/cataluna\/2026\/05\/05\/que-thi-jugues-entrevista-a-lexpresident-del-fc-barcelona-josep-maria-bartomeu-sercat\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">SER<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The transfer remains the most expensive in football history and marked a turning point for Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on that moment, Bartomeu admitted the club were caught off guard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeymar\u2019s departure came as a shock to the club; we didn\u2019t want him to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With little time to react, Barcelona were forced into the market to find a replacement. Explaining the club\u2019s next steps, he said,\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter that, we started looking for a replacement. We made an offer for Mbappe and another for Dembele. The coaching staff preferred Dembele.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why Dembele over Mbappe?<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Mbappe was emerging as one of Europe\u2019s brightest young talents at AS Monaco, and Barcelona explored the possibility of signing him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/france-v-australia-group-d-fifa-world-cup-qatar-2022-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, France national team players\" class=\"wp-image-198789\"  \/>Barcelona attempted to sign Mbappe from AS Monaco. (Photo by Elsa\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>However, the financial demands became clear, as Bartomeu explained,\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t an offer in the strict sense. They would say to you: he\u2019s worth \u20ac180 million. If you want Mbappe, it\u2019s \u20ac180million, and Paris paid it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Barcelona ended up paying \u20ac105\u00a0million plus a reported \u20ac40\u00a0million add-ons to Borussia Dortmund for Dembele.<\/p>\n<p>Bartomeu also addressed how such major decisions were made at the club, making it clear that he avoided interfering in football matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only decision I made as president or as an administrator, and which I defended vigorously, was the signing of Luis Suarez.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then explained why he chose to step back from sporting decisions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was heavily criticised by all the media, so I learnt the lesson that the president or administrators cannot interfere in sporting matters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must trust the technical staff, the sporting directors and the coaches; it is they who decide on signings,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fallout from Neymar\u2019s historic exit continues to offer new insight, with former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,5187,557,2865],"class_list":{"0":"post-17240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-barcelona","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-fc-barcelona","11":"tag-josep-maria-bartomeu","12":"tag-kylian-mbappe","13":"tag-neymar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}