Barcelona pulls out from Bakambu deal after he boarded flight to complete his transfer

Barcelona pulls out from the deal made with Beijing Guoan forward Cedric Bakambu, who almost flew to Barcelona as the deal got cancelled.

Barcelona sparked a controversy on the last day of the winter transfer window, as they brutally snubbed Beijing Guoan forward Cedric Bakambu who almost boarded the flight to Barcelona.

According to the report published by L’Equipe, Barcelona met with Bakambu’s representatives, and they had agreed on a deal with the Chinese outfit to release the 28-year-old with the Super League season indefinitely suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The former Villarreal striker was to come on a 6-month loan period with an option of permanent buy and was deemed to be a temporary replacement for injured Luis Suarez.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo striker was set for a return to Spain, and he flew to Hong Kong where he was scheduled to fly to Barcelona only for him to receive a call from the Catalan club’s director of football, Eric Abidal, who pulled the plug on the deal.

Later, Bakambu took onto social media to verify the botched move and also expressed his disappointment. However, the 28-year-old player even tagged Transfermkt to request upgrades in his profile on their website.

“Yo Transfermarkt, change my transfer history with ‘almost Barcelona’ please,” Bakambu tweeted. “No matter what happens, we trust the process. Thank God for everything. See you another time, Antoine Griezmann.”

After this, Transfermarkt responded to his demand and made the updates the DR Congo player asked on his tweet. Meanwhile, Bakambu headed back to Beijing.

Bakambu left for China in 2018 and in the two seasons in the far-east, he has managed to net 29 goals. He even helped Beijing Guoan finish as runners-up in the Super League last term after winning the Chinese FA Cup in his debut campaign.