Barça admit defeat in the race for Gabriel Jesus

Barcelona have all but removed themselves out of contention for signing Palmeiras striker Gabriel Jesus.

Although the Blaugrana were one of the first teams to submit an offer for the 19-year-old, as SPORT revealed a few weeks ago, the Catalan club have concluded their interest and will not be able to acquire the Brazilian.

Jesus has a buy-out of 24 million euros but both the player and Palmeiras are prepared to increase the asking price after bids received from the Premier League, with Manchester City and United already submitting offers above 30 million euros.

Barça were initally very interested in the player and club executive Raul Sannlehi travelled to Brazil to talk with Palmeiras about Jesus' availability. A proposal was made close to 20 million euros but talks failed to materialise from there after.

Then sporting director Robert Fernandez watched the striker live and saw that there was no doubt about Jesus' quality, but the problem for Barça has been the competition for his signing from City and United.

Real Madrid and Inter Milan have also made tempting offers of their own. Jesus, however, has asked to remain with Palmeiras until December before making his move to Europe.