Liverpool beat off competition from Barcelona to sign RB Leipzig’s Naby Keita.
Keita will seal a club-record £48 million switch to Anfield next summer after Jurgen Klopp agreed to meet the midfielder’s buy-out clause at Leipzig.
However the Bundesliga club’s CEO has revealed that Barca were also in the hunt for Keita around the same time as the Reds’ ultimately successful pursuit.
Oliver Mintzlaff claims that the Spanish giants were also in the hunt for the Guinea international but did not match Liverpool’s willingness to sign him.
Asked whether Klopp’s influence was key, he told SportBild: “That’s right, even more so because Barcelona were also interested in Naby Keita.
“This was confirmed to us by Barcelona, but obviously they didn’t try as hard as Liverpool.
“He wanted the transfer this summer. But [Leipzig sporting director] Ralf Rangnick told the team that we will not sell any players [at that time].”
“This was not lip service – it was set in stone. Had we released Keita, other players might have come up with a similar idea.”