Juventus CEO: Barcelona Never Made an Offer for Paulo Dybala
It was reported during the summer that Juventus had received an offer of roughly €160m from Barcelona for their star man Paulo Dybala, with the Argentine forward highly thought of in Catalonia.
However, Juventus CEO Giuseppe Marotta has denied the Blaugrana made a direct approach for the 23-year-old forward, according to FourFourTwo. Signed as a hot prospect from Palermo in 2015, Dybala has had a hand in 67 goals in just 99 appearances for the Bianchoneri.
With the money from selling Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain still burning a hole in their pocket, Barcelona snapped up ex-Tottenham midfielder Paulinho for £36m and 20-year-old winger Ousmane Dembélé in a staggering £94.5m deal.
However, Barcelona were unable to convince Juventus of allowing Dybala to link up with his compatriot, 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 the Old Lady 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.
