Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar insists he will try to help Kylian Mbappe flourish the way Lionel Messi did for him at Barcelona.
Agent Josep Maria Minguella has claimed Kylian Mbappe wanted to move to Barcelona from Monaco in the summer and that he tried to facilitate a €150 million transfer.
Mbappe eventually signed for Paris Saint-Germain, but Minguella said the 18-year-old would have preferred to move to the Camp Nou.
Minguella said that, in the weeks prior to Neymar's switch from Barcelona to PSG being completed, he had a conversation with Mbappe's father, who detailed his son's desire to sign for the Catalan club.
Acting as an intermediary, Minguella contacted Barca to inform them but the club decided to pursue their interest in Borussia Dortmund's Ousmane Dembele instead.
"Mbappe said he only wanted to sign for Barcelona when he learned that Neymar was going to go to PSG," Minguella, who has collaborated with Barca on several deals in the past, told Cope.
"Barca could have had him for €120m plus €30m in variables. I spoke to his father and he only wanted to join Barca -- he would have loved to play with [Lionel] Messi.
"It was very difficult to get through to [Barca president Josep Maria] Bartomeu, but I told him that Neymar was done [to PSG] and that he should sign Mbappe."
Real Madrid were also heavily linked with a summer move for Mbappe, but Minguella said that was not an option because Los Blancos were not prepared to sell Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale or Karim Benzema.
Mbappe then joined PSG on loan, with a fee of €180m agreed for the deal to become permanent next summer.
Barca, meanwhile, agreed an initial fee of €105m with Dortmund for Mbappe's France international teammate Dembele.
Samuel Marsden covers Barcelona for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @SamuelMarsden.
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Source: espn.co.uk