It was reported this summer that Juventus had received an offer of roughly €160m from Barcelona for their star man Paulo Dybala, with the Argentina international highly on the Catalan giants’ radar.
However, the Old Lady CEO Giuseppe Marotta has denied the Blaugrana made a direct approach for him, according to FourFourTwo. Dybala was signed as a hot prospect from Palermo in 2015, the Argentine has had a hand in 67 goals in just 99 appearances for the Bianchoneri.
With the money from selling Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain in a world-record deal still burning a hole in their pocket, the La Liga giants snapped up former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho for £36m and signed 20-year-old Ousmane Dembélé in a staggering £94.5m deal from Borussia Dortmund.
However, they were unable to convince Juventus of allowing Dybala to link with his countryman, Lionel Messi, at the Camp Nou.
“We did not receive any direct offer from Barcelona for Dybala, but above all we had absolutely no intention of selling him and were certain he’d wear the Juventus jersey,” Marotta said, contrasting previous reports on Dybala.
“We even gave him more responsibility with the number 10, a shirt that holds a great deal of importance in the tradition of Juventus.”
Dybala started for Juventus on Tuesday when the Italian champions travelled to the Camp Nou for the opening fixture in their Champions League group.
Joined by Olympiacos and Sporting CP in their group, Juventus will remain confident of progressing to the knock out stages of the Champions League despite losing 3-0 to Barcelona on the opening day.
Paulo Dybala had a sensational campaign with Juventus last season netting 19 goals in 48 appearances across all competition as he so far this season scored 7 goals in 5 appearances for the Old Lady as of as of 12 September 2017. Dybala joining Barcelona and playing alongside his compatriot, Messi, would have been the best thing since slice bread had it been the Catalan giants made an approach for him.