Liverpool’s move for Bradley Barcola came at a price Bayern Munich weren’t prepared to match.
The Reds paid €125m (£108.2m) to sign the Frenchman from Paris Saint-Germain. But Bayern had also looked seriously at the winger before that move.
Sport Bild have now spoken to Bayern sporting director Max Eberl, and he’s been pretty open about their interest.
Bayern decided price was simply too high
Bradley Barcola wasn’t some last-minute name Bayern threw onto their list. Eberl has known the 24-year-old for years and actually tried to sign him during his time at RB Leipzig.
“Honestly, I’ve known him since my time in Leipzig. I wanted to bring him to RB,” Eberl said. “We sat down together at the time and discussed it. So I had a closer relationship with Bradley.”
“There had therefore always been interest. Of course, we also looked at Bradley at Bayern. But when you hear sums like that, it was too much for us.”
So Bayern had an advantage through Eberl’s previous relationship with Barcola. They knew the player well and clearly liked him enough to consider another attempt.
Then Liverpool’s deal moved into a completely different financial territory.
How high did the figures go?
The €125m (£108.2m) fee was enough to make Bayern walk away, according to their own sporting director. Liverpool clearly reached a very different conclusion when deciding how much Bradley Barcola was worth to them.
Eberl doesn’t say how far Bayern got this time around. There’s no suggestion here of an offer being made or negotiations reaching an advanced stage. What he does confirm is that the interest was genuine and went back years.
Given that personal history, Barcola was hardly an unknown quantity for Bayern’s decision-makers. They had plenty of background on him before Liverpool made their move.
In the end, that didn’t convince them to compete financially. Liverpool were prepared to spend €125m (£108.2m). For Bayern, in Eberl’s own words, that was just too much.
