Rangers were interested in signing midfielder Pablo Torre – but Xavi has proven vital after Barcelona secured the teenager’s signature.
Torre, 18, had emerged as a real talent with Spanish side Racing Santander, hitting seven goals and eight assists in 24 league games.
That may have come in Spain’s third tier, but Torre attracted major interest off the back of his Santander form.
Rangers showed a real interest in signing Torre back in December, with a deal of around £4million believed to be in the pipeline.
However, January passed without Rangers signing Torre – and they have now missed out on the Spanish teenager.
Earlier this month, Barcelona confirmed on their official website that Torre would be arriving in a deal that may end up reaching a huge €20million (£17million).
The release clause in Torre’s contract is set at around €100million (£84million), with Barcelona clearly seeing a huge future for Torre.
It looks like Rangers have missed out on an exciting addition, and it seems that Barcelona boss Xavi played a key role in the move.
The Athletic claim that Torre actually looked set for Real Madrid before a personal intervention from Barca legend Xavi.
Whilst Real would only give Torre an academy role, whereas Xavi sees Torre as becoming like Gavi and Pedri in the Barcelona midfield.
That unsurprisingly swung the race in Barcelona’s favour, with Torre picking a move to the Camp Nou.
Rangers may feel more than a little gutted to have missed out on Torre, who will seemingly receive the platform to become a star at Barcelona.
Rangers would loathe to see Torre hit the heights of players like Pedri, who is one of the top midfielders in the world right now.
In truth though, with Xavi – a former teammate of Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst – playing a key role, Rangers probably would have struggled to pip Barcelona anyway.
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