Barcelona have been hot on the trails of Yeremi Pino for years now, having reportedly failed to sign the 18-year-old Spanish international in 2017.
According to a report by Spanish publication Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona were keen on signing Yeremi Pino and assign him to their Cadet A side back in 2017. However, his agent intervened at the eleventh hour, taking the Spanish prodigy to Villarreal instead.
Yeremi Pino joined Villarreal from UD Las Palmas in 2017 before rapidly progressing through the ranks at the Valencian club before breaking into the first-team setup last season. Since then, he has grown leaps and bounds to already become a regular feature for the Yellow Submarine.
To date, the 18-year-old has featured 46 times for Villarreal while amassing a tally of eight goals and four assists in the process while also making grade with the Spanish national side this month. His progress over the last year or so has alerted a number of clubs, primarily in La Liga, with Real Madrid and Barcelona, in particular, keen on signing him.
The interest from Barcelona makes a lot of sense, considering Memphis Depay and Ansu Fati are in need of long-term support, especially with Ousmane Dembele constantly on the sidelines and also in the middle of a contract standoff with Barcelona after entering the final year of his contract at Camp Nou.
With that in mind, Pino is a viable target for the Blaugrana, although it has been reported that Real Madrid are leading the race to sign the 18-year-old. However, it has now emerged that Barcelona could have secured his services before he joined Villarreal had his agent not intervened.
Indeed, Barcelona were hot on the trails of the Spanish international back in 2017 and were ready to assign him to their Cadet A side, only for his agent to push him towards Villarreal. Judging by how his career has panned out, there would be very few regrets in the player’s camp about turning Barcelona down.
As for his future, Barcelona are once again in the hunt for Pino and it remains to be seen if they are prepared to trigger his €30 million release clause to swoop him away from Villarreal. However, their competition might have something to say about that as well and an intriguing transfer saga could be built around the teenage prodigy soon.