Barcelona turned down Spanish forward before Real Madrid signed him | OneFootball

Having not been able to land their preferred target to replace Robert Lewandowski so far this summer, FC Barcelona are highly likely to go into the new season without a natural first-team center-forward. Hansi Flick has used Raphinha in this position in the first two games, and has enjoyed quite a lot of success with this move, as the Brazilian has already scored three goals.

Unless the situation of the Argentine forward changes drastically, the Catalans are unlikely to try to sign another center-forward before the summer transfer window closes.

However, they had the chance to sign some other players for this position earlier in the summer, especially as in addition to Alvarez, Deco also wanted another striker who was more of a finisher.

In this regard, SPORT cites the journalist Sique Rodriguez to claim that one player who was offered to the Blaugranes during the summer was none other than Carlos Espi, who later moved to Real Madrid.

The journalist, while speaking to Que T’hi Jugues, revealed that the Spaniard was offered to the Catalan club, and they even considered him to be a good player. However, they were not willing to pay a sum of €25 million, which was his release clause with Levante, for a player who was not going to be a starter for them.

Barcelona decided to place their bet on Hamza Abdelkarim, who cost the club only €1.5 million. Now, the Catalans are looking to use the Egyptian as their Plan B if they need a natural center-forward in their first team.

Meanwhile, Carlos Espi ended up joining Real Madrid, as the Merengues landed him in a lightning-fast operation. They were quick to reap the benefits of this operation, as the striker scored the decisive goal in the very last stages of the Merengues’ opening game of the season against Espanyol to give his side the win and the full three points.

For now, it remains to be seen whether this missed opportunity will come to haunt Barcelona, or whether their decision to rely on Hamza Abdelkarim will pay off.