‘People thought we were crazy’ – Joan Laporta on rejecting PSG’s Lamine Yamal bid | OneFootball

The era of “bling-bling” and big-money deals feels as though it belongs to Paris Saint-Germain’s past. The club have made a departure from that strategy and have since looked closer to home when scouting for talent and when looking to add to their squad. 

Speaking earlier in the season, sporting director Luís Campos said that PSG were looking to lean more heavily on their academy in order to avoid the need to dip into the market at all. However, that does not prevent them from scouring the market for prospects, as they did as recently as January, when they signed Dro Fernandez from Barcelona.

He arrived for less than €10m, but there could have been a transaction between the two clubs of much greater value. As Joan Laporta has now revealed, the La Liga giants rejected a bid for Lamine Yamal. “Paris Saint-Germain offered us €250m for Lamine Yamal two years ago. We turned it down. He was 17 years old. Some people thought we were crazy,” he said at the presentation of his book. 

It would have been a world-record sum, had PSG got a deal over the line for Yamal.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle