Gideon Mensah opens up on botched Barcelona transfer

Vitoria Guimaraes defender Gideon Mensah has opened up on how an impending transfer to Barcelona in the summer of 2019 broke down after a breach in the nondisclosure agreement.

Mensah caught the eyes of the Catalan giants during the preseason with Red Bull Salzburg where he excelled in friendlies against Chelsea and Real Madrid.

The Catalans spoke with his former agent with underground works ongoing, but the news which was expected to be kept until everything is finalized broke ahead of time and led to the failure of the move.

“My former agent called me one time and asked if I was open to a move to Barcelona,” he told Citi TV’s The Tracker show.

“He told me that he received a call from Barcelona informing him that they needed a backup left-back for Jordi Alba because their regular backup had departed to Monaco,” he added.

“If the deal went through I was going to have a first-team contract on the loan while I played in the second team.

“If there was the need I would step in as back up.

“He spoke to me in the night and the next morning I woke up to the news all over Facebook. I called him and questioned him about how the news got out.

He continued: “He was not someone who was familiar with the Ghanaian media so I was in shock. He denied knowledge of how the news got out.

“We were supposed to stay underground with the move until it was concluded. Down the line, I stopped working with him,” concluded the left-back.

Mensah is currently on loan at Vitoria Guimaraes from Austrian giants Red Bull Salzburg.