FC Barcelona executive Enric Masip revealed which club recently offered $211.65 million (€200 million) for its wonderkid Lamine Yamal, while appearing on popular Spanish television program El Chiringuito, as reported by Forbes

Masip was first asked if the teenager, who won the Euros with Spain last summer and has continued in fine form under Hansi Flick that has helped Barca top La Liga by six points.

“I would say that right now he is the most decisive player, yes. Let’s see. I don’t think that talking about a 17-year-old boy as the best in the world is good for him, okay?

“For us, yes… For us to think that we have the best in the world I think is nice,” Masip added.

Masip noted that while Lamine debuted as a 15-year-old in the spring of 2024, it has been in “the year where Mbappe decides to go to Madrid”, that “you get a 16-year-old boy who wins the European Championship, who becomes a world phenomenon in a very short time and suddenly you stand in a league that starts as Mbappé’s La Liga and a 17-year-old boy appears who begins to play in a happy way, who overflows, a different player”.

Masip said that this has been “like the icing of the cake” for Barca, and that while Vinicius Jr and Mbappe can “play with that speed, with that quality”, what Lamine does “is something that you saw in [Lionel] Messi”, “something different”.

“Can he be the best in the world? Yes, but it’s good that we stay calm,” Masip reiterated.

Masip accepted that comparisons between Messi and Lamine, which go beyond a viral photo of the Argentine “blessing” the winger when he was barely six months old, and accepted that “it’s going to be like that because the boy doesn’t leave you indifferent either”.

“In other words, every game he does something that leaves you with your mouth open. It’s a privilege for La Liga and Barca to have a player like that.”

Masip, one of the most trusted confidants Laporta has, further opened his mouth about the monstrous offer that came in for Lamine which Laporta himself confirmed during an episode of his podcast.

“The president has already said that he had an offer of €200 million that he rejected and that he never considered it,” Masip stated.

Then when asked where the bid came from, Masip answered: “It was from France”.

El Chiringuito host Josep Pederol said that Lamine would have been “the perfect substitute” for Mbappe, pushing Masip further to confirm that it was Paris Saint-Germain which tabled the offer.

Masip smiled, and said: “Well, when you have money and you have a way to pay for it [i.e. such a big transfer], then you can aspire to try to sign everyone”.

And though Masip didn’t mention PSG’s name outright it is only the Parisians that have that kind of cash and perhaps only them and Manchester City worldwide that boast it to come near smashing the world transfer record.

France manager Didier Deschamps insisted Kylian Mbappe can play as a centre-forward even though some may call him crazy.

The Real Madrid forward was shockingly left out of France’s squad for November’s Nations League fixtures against Israel and Italy, but that didn’t keep Mbappe’s name out of the headlines. After refusing to elaborate on the omission of his captain, who is fully fit but in poor form, Deschamps did offer his opinion on the hotly debated topic of how to get the most out of the 25-year-old.

Following a 3-1 victory over Italy at San Siro on Sunday night – which saw Paris Saint-Germain’s Randal Kolo Muani start up front alongside Inter striker Marcus Thuram – Deschamps was quizzed on Mbappe’s best position.

“He can play in several positions,” the defiant French coach told Telefoot, “after that it’s a question of association. You might tell me that I’m ‘crazy’ to put him as a centre forward but he also played centre forward with his last two club coaches.

“He doesn’t have [Olivier] Giroud’s profile, of course, so it all depends on which team we’re playing against. When he’s in the centre, he has a preference for the left centre rather than the right centre even though I saw him at Real Madrid rather occupying the right centre. It’s a balance of positions [but you have to] always leave a lot of freedom.”

Mbappe ended the long-running transfer saga by leaving PSG to join Real Madrid on a free last summer. After a goal on his debut against Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup, the high-profile striker has struggled to live up to the lofty expectations which he set in Paris.

“He is in a complicated situation,” Deschamps said of Mbappe, who boasts eight goals in 16 games across all competitions this season. “He is supposed to find everything that he could have done very well even if he was also less effective [at times] in 2024.”

Real Madrid’s 4-0 Clasico thrashing at the hands of Barcelona was a particular nadir for Mbappe, who squandered a glut of chances and was memorably caught offside eight times. The Frenchman again drew a blank in Madrid’s dismal Champions League defeat to AC Milan before skirting around the fringes of a home win over Osasuna on the eve of the international break.

Despite overlooking Mbappe for France’s fixtures this month, Deschamps was optimistic that his captain would rediscover his best form. “I hope so and I don’t see why he wouldn’t come back,” the manager said. “He has a complicated, more difficult period, but he has everything to do what he did again.”

90mins

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick criticised the “wrong decision” to disallow Robert Lewandowski’s goal for offside as his team were beaten 1-0 at Real Sociedad on Sunday in LaLiga.

Lewandowski thought he had opened the scoring at Anoeta in the 14th minute, but semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), introduced in Spain at the start of the season, ruled the striker’s toe was marginally ahead of La Real defender Nayef Aguerd’s foot.

The hosts went on to win the game through Sheraldo Becker’s strike, ending Barça’s seven-game winning streak in all competitions. For the first time this season, Flick’s team failed to find the net in a game.

“It was the wrong decision, clear,” Flick told Barça One after the match. “I saw the picture. It’s clear, it’s clear, but we have to accept it.

“It was not the referee’s fault. At the end of the day, we are humans, we make mistakes, and today was a big mistake.”

SAOT is not used universally across Europe. Italy’s Serie A was the first major league to implement it, and there is a desire to introduce it in the Premier League, but its rollout in England has been delayed as testing continues.

Flick was adamant it failed in Lewandowski’s goal. He aired his thoughts to the referee at half-time, although he played down the idea that he had come across as “angry” in the discussion.

Hansi Flick looks on during Barcelona’s loss to Real Sociedad, the second league defeat for his team this season. Getty Images
“It was not so angry,” he laughed in his post-game news conference. “I said only to him ‘It was a goal, it was wrong decision, it was not offside.’

“But it was not his fault. We have to accept it. Until then, with the 1-0 for us, it would be a different match. But at the end, it was different and it was not our day.

“At the end, it’s a defeat, but the matches before and after the last break were fantastic. I appreciate the team and how they are doing.”

Barça’s second league defeat of the season also came with Lamine Yamal watching from the stands after bruising his ankle in the midweek Champions League victory over Red Star Belgrade.

The 17-year-old, who has six goals and eight assists in 16 appearances this season, did not start the last time Barça lost in LaLiga, either, against Osasuna in September.

“I think it would be an easy answer to say ‘OK, we lost because Lamine wasn’t there,'” Flick said when asked if it was just a coincidence they have lost both matches the teenager has not started.

“Of course a player like this quality Lamine has, every team will miss it. But in the end, we started well. I think the goal, what I can say was a wrong decision, absolutely, but we have to accept it.

“After the La Real goal we suffered a little bit. I think today was not our day, also in the offense we did not the clear chances to make goals. We made wrong decisions in the last third. We have to accept it today.”

Flick added that Barça’s and Spain’s doctors will now decide whether Yamal joins up with the national team for upcoming fixtures against Denmark and Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League.

The defeat to La Real sees Barça’s lead at the top of LaLiga cut to six points, while second-placed Real Madrid also have a game in hand. They return to action after the international break against Celta Vigo on Nov. 23.