Barcelona president Joan Laporta insists the club don’t need to sell key players such as Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Gavi and reveals they turned down a €200m bid for wonderkid Lamine Yamal

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has insisted that the club do not need to sell any of their stars despite their financial issues.

The Catalan club have endured financial problems in recent years but Laporta stated that Barcelona won’t be forced to sell players such as Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Gavi.

Laporta also revealed that Barcelona have turned down a bid of around €200milliion (£172million) for 16-year-old wonderkid Lamine Yamal.

Laporta told Mundo Deportivo: ‘We don’t want to sell any big player. If all goes to plan with our goals, we won’t be forced to sell any player.

‘Of course is someone wants to leave, we won’t stop them; but I’m not worried at all with that, we want to keep same squad.’

Commenting on approaches for Yamal, Laporta said:’We’re receiving crazy bids for players like Lamine Yamal around €200m and we’re rejecting, of course’.

‘We trust Lamine and we don’t need to sell’.

Laporta added that the likes of Alejandro Balde, Fermin Lopez and Ronald Araujo have all attracted interest from elsewhere.

He said: ‘We received bids for Balde, Fermin, Pedri, De Jong, Araujo, Gavi… we don’t want to sell our stars’.

Despite being just 16 years old, Yamal has made 39 appearances for Barcelona across all competitions so far this season and has scored six goals, while he has provided seven assists.

Midfielder de Jong has often been linked with a move away from Barcelona, with Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and Chelsea amongst the clubs that are reportedly targeting him. 

Barcelona have lacked consistency this season and are in second place in LaLiga, eight points adrift of leaders Real Madrid.

Although Laporta doesn’t foresee any significant departures this summer in terms of playing staff, a new manager will have to be appointed following Xavi’s decision to leave the club at the end of the campaign.