Manchester United made a bid of over €100m to sign Vitor Roque from Athletico Paranaense, according to the player’s agent.
Barcelona reached an official agreement with the Brazilian side for Roque on Wednesday, with the La Liga side paying €40m (£34.2m) for the 18-year-old.
The Catalans have inserted a mammoth €500m (£428m) release clause in the teenager’s lucrative eight-year deal at the Nou Camp.
The teenager – who became Barcelona’s third signing of the summer following the arrivals of Ilkay Gundogan and Inigo Martinez – scored 22 goals in 66 games for Athletico Paranaense.
Reports last week claimed Manchester United were among a trio of clubs looking to hijack Barcelona’s deal as Alexandre Mattos, director of the Brazilian club, became frustrated with the time it was taking for the Catalans to send the necessary documents.
United, Tottenham and PSG did ‘not stop calling’ and were ‘willing to travel to finalise the transfer’ of the striker as they looked to take advantage of the situation.
It was further added that the interested parties were willing to triple the salary offered to Roque by Barcelona.
And Roque’s agent, Andre Cury, has claimed that both United and Spurs made ‘much bigger offers’ in a bid to hijack Barcelona’s move for Roque.
Cury said: “We received much bigger offers from Tottenham and Manchester United for Vitor Roque. It was over €100m. But his career plan is well mapped out and we opted for Barcelona. The moment is not to look at the money but the career.”
But Barcelona have got their man and president Joan Laporta has opened up on what we can expect from their new signing.
“Goals,” Laporta told Mundo Deportivo. “He very much has his own style. You can’t really compare him with [retired Brazil strikers] Ronaldo or Romario. He is someone that is deadly with both feet inside the box.
“He is different to what we have had here before. If you had to compare him to anyone, it would be Ronaldo, who was a force of nature with us. [Roque] has bags of potential, is young, powerful and Brazilian.”
