Why Angel Di Maria's Transfer to Barcelona Fell Through on Deadline Day

After signing the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in this summer's transfer window, PSG were close to selling Angel Di Maria to Barcelona. However, Financial Fair Play meant that the deal fell through at the last hurdle. 

Due to the extortionate price tags that were on Neymar and Mbappe, PSG were in desperate need of balancing the books. Barcelona saw this as a chance to make a move for the Argentinian winger, and placed a bid that was considerably lower than his value. 

But while investigating PSG, Financial Fair Play viewed what Barcelona were doing as "taking advantage of the situation", according to Radio Montecarlo (via Sport-English).

PSG supposedly needed €80m to balance their spending, so were willing to sell Di Maria and fellow winger Lucas Moura for that price. Barcelona saw an opportunity and bid much lower than PSG's value of Di Maria, but the Argentinian was furious that he was just being used as a trade asset for Les Rouge-et-Bleu. 

In spite of managing to stay in Paris come the end of the transfer window, the situation has by no means improved for Di Maria. The winger has only played a full 90 minutes three times this season, and wasn't even in the squad for PSG's win against Angers. 

With the World Cup in Russia fast approaching, Di Maria would have liked to have been playing regularly to be in peak condition for the competition in the summer of 2018, but his game time seems to be relatively limited in his current situation.