Barcelona president Joan Laporta has admitted that he regrets losing out to Liverpool in the transfer race for one of their star players.
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At the beginning of 2022, the Reds brought forward their transfer plans for the off-season when they signed Colombian winger Luis Diaz for €47 million (R848 million) from Portuguese giants FC Porto.
The reason the Merseyside club expedited the transfer was because of the reported interested from Tottenham Hotspurs, but Barca's president has revealed that the Blaugrana were also keen on landing the attacker.
Speaking at a press conference, the Blaugrana chief explained their admiration for the South American star.
"At that time we had just landed at the club and Liverpool beat us to it, but we were considering bringing [Diaz] in," said Laporta, as per Goal.
"But we were in an economic situation that we had to resolve and reverse. Liverpool were ahead of us."
''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. We had a conversation with his representative, but they already had it very advanced [with Liverpool]."
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Since arriving in the Premier League, Diaz has proven a pivotal part of Jurgen Klopp's attack but is currently nursing a knee injury and should be back once the English top-flight resumes.
Barca, on the other hand, have come to the Premier League in search of a quality winger. They purchased Brazilian attacker Raphinha from Leeds United, but the 25-year-old is yet to hit the heights he did in Yorkshire.
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