Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed the rumours that the club’s star winger Lamine Yamal was the subject of a record-shattering €250m (£208m) bid during last summer’s transfer window.

The talented teenager made his debut for Barcelona’s senior side while he was still 15 and established himself as a first-team regular last season. Yamal lit up Euro 2024, scoring a stunning curler against France in the semi-finals before helping Spain defeat England in the competition’s showpiece.

But before the knockout rounds of Euro 2024 had even begun, reports emerged that Paris Saint-Germain had tabled a world-record offer for the forward, who was still 16 at the time. Laporta didn’t name the interested party, but confirmed the nine-digit bid in an interview with Barcelona’s in-house medial channel: “A club came to me to sign Lamine for €250m and I said no.”

When PSG set the existing world-record transfer by signing Neymar from Barcelona for £198m in 2017, they triggered his release clause, thereby removing any potential involvement from the Spanish club. Laporta had the scope to reject PSG’s offer before it got to Yamal because the prodigious winger has a €1bn release in the three-year deal he signed back in October 2023.

Barcelona’s financial struggles are numerous. Hamstrung by the extravagant spending of past regimes, Laporta has been forced to count every euro since beginning his second spell as president. However, the proud Catalan was keen to insist that Barcelona have not been forced into player sales.

“There are those that think we have [transferred players] to balance the accounts,” Laporta claimed. “But that is not the case. The players that have left have left for sporting reasons.

“[Ousmane] Dembele, [Marc] Guiu…they won’t have things as good as they did at Barca at any other club. We know what we are doing in the transfer market. We want those that are the best and who want to be here to stay – and we have shown that.”

Yamal is already one of the best wingers in the world. Such talent makes it increasingly difficult for any manager to leave him out of the starting lineup. Spain boss Luis de la Fuente came in for criticism this month after starting Yamal in a UEFA Nations League tie against Denmark. The 17-year-old limped off with a minor hamstring injury which could keep him out of Barcelona’s clash with Sevilla this weekend.

Laporta, who has seen several Barcelona players break down after a heavy workload in recent years, was not impressed. “We don’t want a repeat of what happened with Pedri,” the president sniffed. “Making Lamine play was reckless. Of course we defended our interests and they understood our planning and what the player felt. Lamine is a big personality and in the end the correct criteria was applied.”

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