Joan Laporta claims that Barcelona tried to sign Luis Diaz in January but his move to Liverpool was already too far down the line.
The Colombia winger moved from Porto to Liverpool for a reported fee of an initial £37.5million (€45m), with a further £12.5m (€15m) to come in add-ons.
It was suggested at the time that the Reds had beaten fellow Premier League side Tottenham to Diaz’s signature, and Laporta has now admitted that Barca were also looking to do a deal.
“At that time we had just landed at the club and Liverpool beat us to it, but we were considering bringing [Diaz] in,” the Barca president said at a press conference in Bogota.
“But we were in an economic situation that we had to resolve and reverse. Liverpool were ahead of us.”
Diaz has recorded 16 goal involvements – with 10 goals and six assists – in 38 games for Jurgen Klopp’s men since his arrival, winning the EFL Cup, FA Cup and reaching the Champions League final last season.
He has not played since suffering a knee injury in the 3-2 defeat at Arsenal in September, though is expected to be back once the Premier League resumes after the World Cup.
Barca instead signed Daniel Alves, Ferran Torres, Adama Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the last January transfer window, but Laporta says they left it too late to try and land Diaz.
“He’s a great player who has a great sense of belonging to Liverpool and I’m not going to talk about it anymore, but we were interested at the time,” he added.
“We had a conversation with his representative, but they already had it very advanced [with Liverpool].”