Atletico Madrid reject opportunity to sign Barcelona midfielder Marc Casado | OneFootball

Getting a new center-forward to replace Robert Lewandowski is going to be the top priority of FC Barcelona in this summer transfer window, but for the short-term, the Catalan club is expected to prioritize a few sales.

This is the case as they want to generate the income from some planned sales before the end of the current financial year, on June 30th. For this purpose, they have two operations in mind in particular, i.e., the permanent sale of Ansu Fati to AS Monaco, and the sale of the midfielder Marc Casado.

The sale of the forward is already in its last stages, but the midfielder is in no hurry of making a decision, and wants to carefully consider all his options before deciding on his next destination. One of the sides that he was recently being linked with was the La Liga giants Atletico Madrid, but this avenue seems to have closed for now.

This is apparent from a report from SPORT, which informs that Jorge Mendes had offered the player to the Atletico Director of Football, Mateu Alemany, but the Colchoneros have rejected such a move, as they have other transfers that they are prioritizing at the moment. The Mattress Makers also do not want to include any players in a potential deal for the forward Julian Alvarez.

The Blaugrana midfielder was liked by Atletico, but the latter already have their midfield well-covered with players like Rodrigo Mendoza, Obed, Nico Gonzalez, Koke, and Pablo Barrios. If one of these players ends up leaving, they can consider Casado, but this is not the case for now.

In such a context, Al-Hilal remains another interesting option, even though Marc Casado himself is not convinced too much with this from a sporting perspective. Meanwhile, Real Betis is emerging to be another interesting option for the player, but their limited financial capacity means they would have to agree on a transfer in which Barcelona retain some rights on the player.