Xavi confirms Man City did not want defender to join Barcelona in the winter

Speaking in an interview with TV3, Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez confirmed that the club wanted to sign Joao Cancelo during the January transfer window only for Manchester City to decide against sanctioning the move.

Cancelo was on the market during the winter window following his falling out with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.

As it turned out, the Portuguese international was offered to Barça and the club wanted to sign him. However, it was the Cityzens, who after discussing internally, decided that they did not want the full-back to join the Blaugrana, revealed Xavi.

“We wanted João Cancelo at Barça in January, he was offered and we said yes. Man City discussed that internally and then told us they did NOT want to allow João to join Barcelona”, Xavi told TV3, as quoted by Fabrizio Romano.

With Manchester City deciding to block Cancelo’s loan move to Barcelona, the right-back eventually made his way to Bayern Munich where he won the Bundesliga title.

However, the Bavarian giants will not be taking up the €70 million permanent purchase option on him, meaning he will be back at the Etihad Stadium soon. But with no future for him under Guardiola, Man City are ready to sell him this summer.

And, Barcelona are once again interested in securing his services. The La Liga champions plan to sign Cancelo on a loan deal at a reduced wage, but the Premier League title winners wish to sell him off permanently.

This is where things could get tricky for Barcelona as Arsenal are willing to pay a fee and sign him on a permanent transfer rather than getting him on loan. Furthermore, the possibility of Manchester City blocking a move like they did back in January also exists.