Barcelona were very active during the summer transfer window, although they would only make one first team signing: Dani Olmo. Numerous players were sold, among them was Mikayil Faye, who ended up joining Stade Rennais on a permanent basis.
Faye had been promoted to the Barcelona first team over the summer, and it appeared that he would be in Hansi Flick’s plans for the upcoming season. His agent, Andy Bara, confirmed on Podcast Inkubator that this was the case, and that a sale only happened because it needed to.
Mikayil Faye left because of the situation with Olmo. He didn’t want to leave nor Barcelona wanted to sell him. They needed fair play, so he left. Barcelona initially wanted to sell Inigo Martinez, but he didn’t want to leave.
“He spoke with Hansi Flick during the USA tour where Hansi told Faye ‘don’t worry, you will have at least 10 appearances this season and from next season we will see how it goes’. Faye agreed with Flick and we were all happy. Barcelona wanted Olmo so they had to sell few players. I used my player (Faye) to help Barcelona in that situation and explained everything to him.”
Bara revealed the number of clubs that were interested in Faye, among them Manchester United.
Many clubs were interested, such as Rennes, Inter, Lille, Marseille, Frankfurt – as I said, many clubs. 15 days before Faye went to Rennes, Barcelona didn’t want to talk about his departure, they thought he can participate in the first team.
“Manchester United were among those interested in Mikayil Faye – but he didn’t like that option. He didn’t start at Barcelona, so what if he didn’t get the same at United too, his development would’ve made zero progress.”
