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Barcelona REJECTED Pulisic signing after FIFA transfer threats - revelation on Chelsea man
BARCELONA gave up their attempts to sign Christian Pulisic ELEVEN YEARS AGO because of transfer threats made by FIFA.
Pulisic officially signed for Chelsea on Wednesday in a £57.5million deal.
The USA international will remain at Borussia Dortmund on loan until the end of the season - before then heading to west London.
Chelsea snapped up the playmaker despite interest from a number of clubs - including Tottenham last summer.
But the 20-year-old had the chance to join Barcelona a decade ago.
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According to a report in Spanish newspaper SPORT, Pulisic went on trial at Barca back in 2008.
He spent a trial at Barcelona. But then-trainer Jordi Font has revealed why Barca didn’t make the signing permanent.
“His father believed that in the United States he could not make more progress and that's why he was looking for a team in Europe," Font told SPORT.
Albert Puig, former Barcelona youth technical director, said: "He was a very small player, but he saw a potential.
“He was especially good in one-on-one situations.”
SPORT claim Barca wanted to sign Pulisic but FIFA had already begun investigating their transfer activities when it came to registering players under the age of 18.
Barcelona were eventually banned for two transfer windows in 2014/15 because they were found to have violated Article 19 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players by signing international players under the age of 18.
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The investigation had been long-running and was already at a certain stage that Barca felt they couldn’t sign Pulisic.
SPORT claim Barca had reached an agreement with Pulisic and paid for him to stay at a hotel.
However, in the end his father managed to get Pulisic a Croatian passport - and with that a move to Dortmund came in 2015 when the gem was just 16 years old.