Barcelona have kept their faith in young talents since the departure of legends like Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Gerard Pique. Over the past few seasons, the Catalan giants have provided a platform to a lot of youngsters, including Lamine Yamal, Gavi and Pedri. Barcelona had an opportunity to add another promising teenager to their squad this summer but the deal did not take place. The La Liga giants had kept their eyes on Jorthy Mokio over the past few months. The 16-year-old defender became a free agent after his youth contract with KAA Gent expired. Apart from Barcelona, other top-tier clubs like Ajax, PSV and AC Milan were reportedly interested in acquiring his services at a tender age. Mokio ultimately joined Ajax as his father doubted the Belgian defender would not find his place in the Barcelona first team.
According to a report by Football Espana, Barcelona had almost convinced Jorthy Mokio to join the club this summer. They also sent him an invitation to attend the Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) last season. During a recent interaction with Het Belang van Limburg, Thierry Mokio revealed that they had also talked with Barcelona’s sporting director Deco regarding his son’s potential deal.
“They told us that they were going to do like with Lamine Yamal or Cubarsí. We spoke with Deco, the sports director, and he told us that he would train with the first team,” Thierry told the Belgian outlet, as quoted by Sport.
According to Thierry Mokio, they initially planned to sign with Barcelona but changed the decision after considering the situation of Senegalese centre-back Mikayil Faye. There were several media reports that Barcelona would sell the 19-year-old defender to Porto this summer. The club might have not made any official announcement about Faye. But the claims led Mokio’s father to assume that Barcelona would not be able to give him regular game time.
“The pressure at Barca is of another dimension. If it doesn’t work, you end up in Osasuna, for example, and you’re lost. It seemed like too big a step. It is true that there was a moment when we had decided to sign for Barca, but then we saw that they wanted to sell a 19-year-old defender to Porto. It’s too much, I couldn’t do that to my son,” Thierry Mokio explained.
Meanwhile, Chelsea recently completed the signing of Barcelona teenager Marc Guiu. The talented teenage striker had scored just 23 seconds into his debut against Athletic Bilbao in October last year.
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