The agent of Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti has denied that the centre-back has failed a medical with Rennes.
The France World Cup winner has largely had his Camp Nou career derailed by injuries and Barça have been keen to sell him in the last few transfer windows.
Reports in Spain initially stated that Umtiti was on the verge of returning to his homeland with Rennes, but Mundo Deportivo claimed that he had failed a medical with the Ligue 1 side.
However, Umtiti’s agent, Arturo Canales, contacted the Catalan outlet to inform them that this story was false.
Umtiti later wrote in a social media post: “When the lie takes the elevator, the truth takes the stairs, it takes longer, but it always ends up arriving.”
Listen now to 90min’s Talking Transfers podcast, with Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey, Harry Symeou & Toby Cudworth. On the latest show they discuss Chelsea turning to Antony and Serge Gnabry as Barcelona close in on Raphinha, why Manchester United have still not signed Frenkie de Jong, Manchester City’s pursuit of Marc Cucurella and their interest in Jules Kounde and Pau Torres. Available on all audio platforms and the 90min YouTube channel.
If you can’t see the podcast embed, click here to download the episode in full!
Mundo Deportivo add that Barcelona want to publicly clarify the situation regarding Umtiti and have sided with his version of events, though it is now unclear as to why the transfer collapsed.
Barcelona have already signed another centre-back this window in the form of Andreas Christensen, and 90min understands they remain in talks with Sevilla over Jules Kounde too.