Ex-Barca chief reveals they almost signed “special player” ahead of Manchester United

Former Barcelona director Jordi Cruyff has admitted the club almost signed Antony from Ajax while he was there, though they instead chose to bring in Raphinha.

Antony ended up moving from Ajax to Manchester United and it’s fair to say he proved to be a major flop at Old Trafford, but he’s since revived his career in Spain with Real Betis.

It seems Cruyff remains a big fan of Antony, describing him as a “special player” on today’s episode of The Overlap.

The 51-year-old said, however, that Barca ultimately chose to sign Raphinha over Antony because of the club’s financial issues at the time.

Barcelona viewed Raphinha transfer as lower risk than Antony

Barcelona have been under a lot of pressure due to the Financial Fair Play rules in La Liga, and Cruyff felt that signing Antony might be riskier than Raphinha.

Although Cruyff is a fan of Antony, he felt that if he flopped at the Nou Camp it would be hard to make any money back on him later, whereas if Raphinha struggled he would probably have suitors in England due to shining at Leeds United.

In the end, Raphinha proved a big hit for the Catalan giants anyway, so this was clearly a good decision by Cruyff and co. overall.

Antony, meanwhile, didn’t make it at United but has perhaps at least shown with Betis that he can be a top performer in La Liga.

Even if we’ll never know now, it’s perhaps a shame for Antony that he didn’t end up moving to Barcelona when they had an interest in him, as it could have been a better step for him when it came to leaving Ajax.

Many players have had a lot of joy going from Ajax to Barcelona down the years, including of course, Cruyff’s legendary father Johan.

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