🚨 JUST IN: Barcelona players are internally very enthusiastic over the possible signing of Julian Alvarez. They all feel his arrival would be a huge leap in quality and everyone celebrated with joy after hearing his words — they all want him. @monfortcarlos#Transfers 🇦🇷🌟
🚨🎙️| Forlan: "For a player like Araújo, who is a GLOBAL FOOTBALL REFERANCE and plays for a club like Barcelona, to openly say he needed to take care of his mental health is incredibly valuable. He simply said what he was feeling, and being able to express that is something truly important. It helps me teach my children, and when I speak to our players, I remind them that although people remember me as the Diego Forlán who scored goals in 2010, I'm also a human being who has made mistakes. When we see Araújo playing for Barcelona, we don't see everything he has gone through or everything he has had to endure to get there." [@mundodeportivo] #fcblive 🇺🇾
🚨 Pedri: “I love Julián Álvarez. I hope he joins Barcelona, I hope the deal happens”.
“He’s among the best players and we want the best at Barça”, told RTVE. 🔵🔴
🚨🎙️| Luis Suárez: “If I had to choose a striker for Barcelona, I’d choose Julián Álvarez. He has everything needed to succeed there. For me, he’s one of the most complete forwards in world football because of everything he contributes, not just goals.” #fcblive 👀
💡 Thanks to @culeenvallecas we got reminded of the one German that almost became a Barça player. Andreas Köpke.
The Andreas Köpke transfer saga of June 1996 remains one of the most famous "ghost transfers" in Barcelona's history, where a deal was completely finalized, publicly announced, and photographed, only to collapse at the very last second.
In the summer of 1996, Barcelona was undergoing a massive overhaul under new manager Bobby Robson after the messy departure of Johan Cruyff. Looking to replace the aging Carles Busquets (father of Sergio Busquets), Barcelona targeted Andreas Köpke, who was actively starring as Germany’s starting goalkeeper at UEFA Euro 1996.
On June 22, 1996, the transfer was considered 100% complete.
On June 24, 1996, Mundo Deportivo journalists met Köpke at the German team hotel in London right before their Euro semi-final against England. Köpke proudly posed for the front page holding a Barcelona scarf and explicitly stated: "I am to all intents and purposes an FC Barcelona player for the next two years."
Köpke’s current club, Eintracht Frankfurt, had just been relegated. Without notifying Barcelona, Köpke or his agent, they had already signed a prior legally binding pre-contract agreement to join VfB Stuttgart.
The president of VfB Stuttgart at the time, Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, also happened to be a high-ranking official within the German Football Association (DFB).
Stuttgart threatened to take the case to FIFA to have Köpke banned for signing two contracts. To protect their interests and avoid a legal war with the DFB and Stuttgart, Barcelona pulled out of the deal completely via fax.
Left without their primary target, Barcelona quickly pivoted and signed Portuguese goalkeeper Vítor Baía from Porto instead.
Furious with Stuttgart and the DFB for ruining his dream move, calling it a "dirty trick" (linkes Ding), Köpke refused to ever play for Stuttgart. Instead, he capitalized on winning Euro 1996 and being named the World's Best Goalkeeper by signing with Olympique de Marseille later that summer.