Exclusive: First contact between Barça and Verratti in Ibiza

What was predictable has happened. The first meeting between Barcelona and Marco Verratti took place on Wednesday in Ibiza. Despite reports of a dinner between Leo Messi and the PSG midfielder, the reality is that the Italian spent the night with friends and, for more than half an hour, with his agent, Donato Di Campli, and Barça director Javier Bordas. The meeting was informal and comes after the player has already told PSG of his desire to leave and sign for Barça. 

It was a relaxed meeting given Verratti and his agent already know Bordas from the past. There was a good 'feeling' between all parties and the player showed his total predisposition to sign for Barça this summer. Both Di Campli and his client confirmed to Bordas that they are putting pressure on PSG to sell and that they hope everything can be pushed through in the coming weeks. 

Verratti, in the meeting, made it clear that his preference is Barça, but they must be prepared to wait. That's because PSG, for now, have shown little will to negotiate a deal. The Paris club do not want to sell, but the player will continue to put pressure on to achieve his objective. It's not been ruled out that there will be another meeting in Ibiza, albeit at a higher level. The contact between the player's agent is continuous anyway and everything is more or less agreed. All that's needed is an agreement between the two clubs.