The outlandish idea Barcelona presented to Napoli's Fernando Llorente
The Catalan club weighed up the possibility of signing the Spain striker
Lucas Pérez, Loren, Ángel, Stuani, Roger Martí, Chimy Avila, Budimirm, Luis Suárez… Before signing Martin Braithwaite, Barcelona looked at a number of options on the market.
From players out of work to players in the Spanish league. It was a question of leaving nothing to chance. Among the options, they also contemplated a player whose name did not come out in the media and on Tuesday was part of the opposition as Barça drew 1-1 with Napoli in the Champions League: Fernando Llorente.
As he plays in Italy and has a contract until 2022, Llorente was not an option to sign for the club after Ousmane Dembele's injury. But the club had thoroughly looked at signing him before.
Barça invited Llorente to change his contractual situation. The striker would have had to ask Napoli to rescind his contract so that he would become a free agent and could sign elsewhere. The ex-Spain international didn't feel it was a viable option.
Among other reasons, because Napoli would have wanted some form of cash for breaking the deal and/or because it would have left a bad taste if they'd let him go free and he then signed elsewhere.
Llorente and Barcelona could not make the puzzle fit and the club preferred the option of Braithwaite.
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