Barcelona president Joan Laporta has revealed that the club wanted to buy Luis Diaz before he signed for Liverpool.
The Reds landed the forward in January 2022 for a reported fee of €45 million, with a further €15m in add-ons.
Laporta says Barcelona were also keen but missed out because of their financial issues.
“At that time, we had just arrived at the club but Liverpool beat us to it,” he said.
“There was a time when we were considering his incorporation but we still had an economic situation that we had to resolve, to reverse and they beat us to it.