Barcelona 'refused to sign Valencia captain Parejo despite Valverde wanted him'

Barcelona insist they had no interest in previously signing Valencia midfielder Dani Parejo, despite claims from the player.

That is according to a report in El Mundo Deportivo, who say that despite the Blaugrana’s former Coach Ernesto Valverde being a fan of Parejo, the club were never likely to sign him.

It dates back to the summer of 2017 when it was first reported that the Catalan giants held an interest in the central midfielder.

The 31-year-old joined Los Che from Getafe in 2011 in a €6m deal and he has amassed 373 appearances for the club, netting 64 goals in that timeframe and becoming renowned as a set-piece expert.

Parejo made five first-team appearances at Real Madrid at the start of his career and also enjoyed a loan spell at Queen’s Park Rangers.

Barcelona signed central midfielder Paulinho in the summer of 2017 and were reportedly laying the foundations for the future deals of Arthur Melo (2018) and Frenkie de Jong (2019), while Arturo Vidal also joined in the summer of 2018.