Julian Draxler was reportedly holding out for a summer move to Barcelona ‘until the last moment’ before a transfer failed to materialise.
According to a report by Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo, Julian Draxler has confessed to his Germany teammates that he was hoping to seal a late move to Barcelona, with his agent offering the player’s services to the club. However, the Blaugrana were not interested in signing him due to ‘technical reasons’.
Draxler has come a long way since becoming the second youngest starter in Bundesliga history in 2011 for Schalke. Since then, the player has progressed by leaps and bounds to be widely regarded as one of the most exciting young attackers in Europe.
Earlier this year, Draxler joined PSG in a controversial move, and quickly established himself as a key figure for the club. In all, the Germany international made 25 appearances for Les Parisiens following his January move, with a respectable return of 10 goals and 3 assists to show for his efforts.
However, as the summer transfer window was nearing its closure, widespread reports claimed that Draxler’s time at Parc des Princes was about to come to an end just seven months into his spell with PSG.
El Mundo Deportivo claims that Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Julian Draxler was holding out for a summer move to Barcelona. pic.twitter.com/6pT3AQIIMz
— RumorsTransfers 24/7 (@rumorstransfers) September 7, 2017
In fact, there were suggestions that the player did not feature in Unai Emery’s plans for the season following the arrival of Neymar and later, Kylian Mbappe. The 23-year-old was subsequently linked with Barcelona, who had been scrambling to find an ideal replacement for the Brazilian.
Rumours of a move strengthened after the Blaugrana’s pursuits of Philippe Coutinho and Angel Di Maria broke down. Draxler, himself, had been hoping to seal a late switch to Camp Nou after his agent, Roger Wittman traveled to Barcelona twice to offer the player’s services to the club.
In fact, the German forward was so confident of making the move to Barcelona that he blocked all approaches from the Premier League, where the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United were reportedly interested.
Barcelona, though, shut the door on any possible move for Draxler, insisting that they were not interested in him due to ‘technical reasons’. Indeed, their position is likely to have changed after they secured the services of Ousmane Dembele from Borussia Dortmund.
PSG, too, changed their stance on the player’s position at the club with the thought that Unai Emery would need strength in depth with the prospect of a fixture pileup as the season wears on.
Draxler, though, is only likely to share game time with Di Maria, Lucas Moura and others in what appears to be his best case scenario at the present moment, instead of starting games week in week out.
