Barcelona given good and bad news on pursuit of free agent forward | OneFootball

Lille President Olivier Letang is not willing to throw in the towel with striker Jonathan David, who is due to leave the club next summer at the end of the season. David is out of contract, and Letang showed last summer during Leny Yoro’s move to Manchester United and not Real Madrid that he is a tough negotiator.

David recently voiced his affection for Barcelona, noting that they were his team as he was growing up, and the Canadian forward is on their shortlist for next summer. Sporting Director Deco is evaluating whether he is up to scratch as per the latest in Catalonia. Letang was quoted by Sport on RMC Sport speaking on the topic though.

“We are not going to sell him in January and we have not received any offers for him.”

“Jonathan’s situation is super simple. We are very happy to have him with us. Last offseason he had one year left on his contract. We could qualify for the Champions League. When you have a boy who scores 20-25 goals per season. We had no obligation to sell him”

Letang says that David has a fresh offer on the table from Les Dogues too.

“Our position was very clear from the beginning, we thought about the athlete, obviously, he already has an offer that is in his hands, the ball is in his court.”

On the one hand, this news is positive for the Blaugrana, as they had no intention to move for David in the January transfer market. On the other hand, if Letang intends to retain David, then that is another competitor for his signature. Atletico Madrid were also interested early last year, but have cooled their interest due to his salary demands.