Barcelona have run into problems in their bid to revolutionise the attack available to Hansi Flick, and they have turned their sights towards Rafael Leao of AC Milan and Federico Chiesa of Juventus.
La Gazzetta dello Sport have confirmed the earlier report from Mundo Deportivo which claimed that Barça want to close the market with the signing of a top-tier attacking winger, and that they spoke about Leao with the agent Jorge Mendes.
However, this does not mean that the end of the summer window for Milan will be shaken by the most sensational of negotiations, because the winger is ‘unsellable’ in the eyes of the management at present and would cost a huge amount.
Barcelona have not made an offer and have just had ‘exploratory talks’ over the ex-Lille star, yet a deal remains incredible complicated. They cannot pay his €175m clause which is no longer even active after 15 July, and the Rossoneri do not want to sell because they would have no time to replace him.
It’s a different story for Chiesa, because the player really likes the idea of joining the Blaugrana and Juventus have been looking for a club willing to sign the forward for some time, so there could be a potential marriage.
Despite this, the Catalan side are battling to stay on the right side of the rules financially, so much so that they have not been able to officially register Dani Olmo because to do so they must free up some wage budget, which they are trying to offload Ilkay Gundogan and Vítor Roque to do.
