Manchester United have reportedly made an offer of £25.4 million (€30 million) to acquire Barcelona midfielder Fermin Lopez. According to sources, this proposal has been submitted by the Premier League club in an effort to strengthen their squad.
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Fermin Lopez had an exceptional breakthrough season with Barcelona during the 2023/24 campaign, where he scored 11 goals and provided one assist in a total of 40 appearances across all competitions.
His impressive performance did not go unnoticed, and he earned a place in Spain’s 26-player squad for the Euro 2024 tournament. Earlier this month, Fermin made his senior debut for the Spanish national team, La Roja, in a friendly match against Andorra.
The Catalan publication SPORT has reported that Barcelona rejected Manchester United’s bid of £25.4 million for Fermin. It is understood that the Red Devils are searching for a technically skilled midfielder who can make offensive contributions by scoring goals, and they had identified Fermin as a primary target.
This offer from Manchester United is the first one that Barcelona has received for the 21-year-old midfielder this summer. However, Barcelona is not planning to sell him, especially not at the price proposed by the Premier League club.
Despite Barcelona’s well-documented financial difficulties over recent years, the club is not willing to part with Fermin unless they receive an extraordinarily high offer.
Manchester United had previously shown interest in another Barcelona midfielder, Frenkie de Jong. When Erik ten Hag became the manager at Old Trafford in the summer of 2022, he made significant efforts to sign De Jong. Ten Hag has also publicly stated that he believes his tenure would have been more successful if a player with De Jong’s attributes had joined the team at the beginning of his leadership.
In contrast to Fermin, Frenkie de Jong is not participating in Euro 2024 as he was unable to recover from an ankle injury in time to be included in the Netherlands’ final squad.
Fermin Lopez might play for Spain in their upcoming match against the defending champions, Italy, which is one of the most anticipated games in this Thursday’s Euro 2024 schedule.
