Barcelona Clasico star made Manchester United transfer U-turn – ‘He had it all agreed’ | OneFootball

Everything is coming up roses for Barcelona currently, including manager Hansi Flick’s decision to stick with goalkeeper Inaki Pena for their big clashes against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Pena made three big saves against Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane, but he could have been wearing the red of Manchester United.

In an interview with MD, former academy chiefs Aureli Altamira and Jordi Roura have explained that they were surprised to be able to hold onto Pena, who had agreed a move to United.

“We uncovered the issue that he had agreed to go to Manchester United. He had traveled there and everything. He had it done. But we spoke with him, we presented our future plan, what we expected from him. To our surprise, we convinced him and he decided to stay. A spectacular kid, a professional like the salt of the earth. We are happy that the opportunity has come to him and that he is responding as he is.”

Meanwhile one player they did not manage to persuade to stay was Dani Olmo. He went to Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia at the age of 15, and broke out there before joining RB Leipzig for €25m. This summer, he was finally back in Blaugrana following a €62m move home.

“We arrived and it was done. The father called me when we entered and I think there was some carelessness. He was expecting a meeting and things had not been made clear to him. We were crazy to see if we could resolve it, improve the conditions. But he already told us that they had given their word to Dinamo. Fortunately he didn’t listen to us, because he has done very well.”

Olmo has certainly hit the ground running, looking every bit the player that was the productive of all at Euro 2024. Pena was criticised heavily last season when filling in for Marc-Andre ter Stegen, but following his performances against Bayern and Real Madrid, his confidence will be higher than ever before. He will still have to keep Wojciech Szczesny off the pitch though.