Dusan Vlahovic made the switch to Juventus last year, having established himself as one of the most prolific strikers in European football.
The Serbian had a stellar spell at Fiorentina, and Juventus had been monitoring him for a considerable amount of time before making their move.
As it turns out, they weren’t the only club pursuing him. Arsenal was among their competitors in the race to secure his signature.
The Gunners made a strong effort to acquire the Serbian, but he ultimately opted to join Turin and play for the most prominent club in Serie A.
Since his arrival at Juve, his contributions have been well-received, but there is now speculation that he could have moved to Barcelona much earlier, possibly for a smaller transfer fee.
Former Barcelona striker turned club scout, Bojan KrKic, has recently disclosed that they had the opportunity to sign him well before now.
He said, as quoted by Tuttomercatoweb:
“We had the possibility of signing Vlahovic at Barça. He played very well for Fiorentina, he had already made his debut for the first team and scored.
“He was only worth 12 million at the time and it was a great deal. There was a meeting with coach Koeman and the sporting directors, but it was discarded. In truth, they thought that he wasn’t much, that he didn’t have such a high level for the Barcelona of the future.”
Juve FC Says
Vlahovic has shown real talent even before he moved to Italy, so it is hardly a surprise that top clubs scouted him for a long time.
We are lucky he chose to play for us because he could easily have joined another team if he wanted.
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