Barcelona president Joan Laporta has revealed he rejected a mammoth €250m (£208m) bid for Lamine Yamal from Paris Saint-Germain over the summer.
Yamal was the headline star of Euro 2024, playing an integral part of Spain's success, as they edged out England to glory in the final in Berlin.
The 17-year-old won Young Player of the Tournament, and scored the Goal of the Tournament, with his astonishing curling strike against France in the semi-final.
Four assists at the finals was also the joint-most by any player at a European Championship, as Yamal built on his impressive debut season at Barcelona.
With 12 goal involvements for club and country so far already, Yamal has picked up where he left off in the summer too, making a fine start under new manager Hansi Flick.
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Laporta confirms eye-watering Yamal bid
After losing Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid, PSG were linked with big-money moves in order to plug that gap.
In what has become a new approach though, the French champions are targeting younger players, as opposed to ready-made superstars as they have done in the past.
However, Barcelona rejected their advances, confirmed by Laporta, when speaking to club media on Thursday.
"We received a bid worth €250m (£208m) for Lamine Yamal and we turned it down," Laporta revealed.
"We didn't want to [sell] because we thought we had to keep the team. I think we haven't made a mistake. Flick is getting a lot out of many of these players."
Laporta continued: "[Ilkay] Gundogan has left but [Dani] Olmo has come. There are players who are performing better, like Raphinha or [Robert] Lewandowski. We are happy. But those who want to stay will stay at Barça."
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Laporta issues hand-off warning to PSG?
Further statements from Laporta would appear to put PSG off from re-entering the market for Yamal in the future, claiming that Barcelona will do whatever is possible to keep them as strong as possible on the field.
"There are those who think [selling players] have been done to balance the finances, but that's not the case. The sale of players we have made has been for sporting reasons." Laporta stated.
PSG have already broke the world transfer fee on a Barcelona player before, when they bought Neymar in 2016 for €222m (£185m), so it shows how crucial Yamal is to the La Liga that they passed up on receiving yet another record fee this summer.
The Ligue 1 champions did spend heavily elsewhere over the summer, but not on direct replacements for Mbappe, as the current preferred front three of Randal Kolo Muani, Ousmane Dembele and Bradley Barcola were already at the club.
Andrew Delaney
