Barcelona’s interest in Rafael Leao seems to have been short lived as they are now going for Federcio Chiesa of Juventus, according to a report.
According to Tuttosport (via MilanNews), Leao was the ‘forbidden dream’ for Barcelona in their quest to sign a new starting left winger, but Milan were categorical in maintaining a position of resistance in the event of an offer.
CEO Giorgio Furlani was the first to guarantee that Leao will remain at the club ‘100%’ and head coach Paulo Fonseca was asked about his compatriot during his pre-match press conference yesterday, also confirming that he will stay.
Barcelona fell back on Chiesa of Juventus after his agent Ramadani had proposed him in the past few days. An initial evaluation phase was immediately followed by the actual negotiation, for an operation that is win-win because of Juve’s need to sell and Barca’s desire to strengthen.
The paper adds that Chiesa – knowing that he needs to find an agreement with a club in the final days of the window to avoid a few months sat on the sidelines – even lowered his demands to a three-year contract at €4m net per season.
Juventus want €15m to sell the Italian while Barcelona do not want to go beyond €10m plus the inclusion of some bonuses, a distance that does not seem to be impossible to fill.
