Adama Traore: Why I rejected Spurs for Barcelona
FT Desk
- 9 Feb 2022 17:41 GMT
- 3 min read
Adama Traore has revealed why he rejected a January move to Tottenham in order to return to Barcelona.
Barcelona sealed the capture of the Wolves winger on a loan deal with the option to make the transfer permanent at the end of the season.
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An option of €35 million has been inserted into the agreement between Wolves and Barca to allow the Blaugrana to pull the trigger on a permanent transfer if Traore can convince manager Xavi and the club’s hierarchy it’s worth the investment this summer.
Traore had initially appeared to be on his way to Tottenham, who were in negotiations to sign him for most of January.
But in the end, Traore opted to return to Barcelona after seven years away.
It has been reported that the reason for Traore snubbing Spurs was because he didn’t want to play as a right wing-back in Antonio Conte’s 3-5-2.
But Adama insists that it was a personal decision to rejoin Barca.
What did Traore say?
“I am happy to return to the city where I was born and that I love,” Adama told Barcelona TV.
“I’ve had the target to return here since the day I left. Sometimes you have to take different paths in order to meet again. I’ve wanted to return since the very beginning.”
Traore enjoyed a fantastic debut for Barcelona on Sunday as he ran riot during their 4-2 La Liga win over Atletico Madrid.
The wideman had been one of Spurs’ main transfer targets – along with Franck Kessie of Milan and Luis Diaz of Porto.
In the end, Spurs failed to sign any of their three objectives.
This meant they had to splash out €70m on Juventus duo Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur in the closing days of the January market.
