Barcelona offered more than €40m for Marquinhos

Barcelona offered more than €40m for Marquinhos

Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has revealed that the French champions rejected an offer of more than €40million from Barcelona for Brazilian defender Marquinhos this summer.

"We received a huge offer from FC Barcelona," he confirmed in an interview with 'Le Parisien'. "It was more than €40m, but we don't sign players to sell them.

"We are not here to do busines, but to construct a great club with talented footballers.

"If we were here to do business, we would have sold three or four player this summer. However, that is not my philosophy."

In the same interview, Al-Khelaifi said the club turned down signing Angel Di Maria because of the price Real Madrid were demanding. The Argentine eventually signed for Manchester United for €75m.

"I was speaking for three of four weeks with my friend [Madrid president] Florentino Perez," he continued.

"We met up two times and we made an offer, but we weren't in agreement with the price. It was far too expensive and it wouldn't have sat well with [UEFA's] FFP rules.

"He wanted to come to PSG, but it wasn't possible."