How Barcelona missed out on signing Manchester City midfielder in January – report

It’s no secret that Barcelona were heavily interested in signing Manchester City midfielder Kalvin Phillips during the January transfer window. Given the current state of finances, though, the Blaugrana had to miss out on their midfield target.

Interestingly enough, there was a time when the team from Catalonia did come close to acquiring the England midfielder, but unfortunately, it was too little too late for them.

According to a report from SPORT, Barcelona first ruled out his signing owing to Financial Fair Play Regulation but after Alejandro Balde got injured, there opened a space within the salary cap but by then, West Ham United had made their move already.

How did Barcelona miss out?

Barcelona knew about Phillips’ situation at Manchester City and thought he might come to the club on loan for the last six months of the season.

But, they only considered it if the loan was free and they had to pay only the fee. City didn’t agree because they didn’t want a situation like Joao Cancelo’s with Barcelona.

Kalvin Phillips wanted to sign for Barcelona. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

By January 24, the chances of Phillips joining Barcelona became unlikely. He got worried because the Catalans couldn’t meet the financial requirements since the remaining €40 million owed by Libero for the Barça Vision deal was not collected. 

If only there was early news related to Balde

This is why he told his agent to explore other options, and West Ham became one of them. Unfortunately for Barcelona, Balde got injured the same day but it wasn’t until three days later that they confirmed he needed surgery. 

Barcelona had to wait for the operation to confirm that Balde would be out for the season, allowing them to free up financial space with 80% of his salary.

However, by then, it was too late. On January 26, West Ham announced the deal with City for Phillips’ loan.

The financial details weren’t disclosed, but in England, it’s reported that City asked for €8 million for the loan and agreed to cover Phillips’ full salary, which was around €165,000 per week.