Lionel Messi wants £162 million superstar at Barcelona, Real Madrid set to beat Juventus and Bayern Munich to Premier League superstar: Transfer Roundup, 2 December 2018

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified Dec 19, 2018 13:42 GMT

Lionel Messi has made it clear who he wants to team up with at Barcelona

Chelsea rejects Barca's approach for Andreas Christensen

Christensen has been playing second fiddle to David Luiz at Chelsea

The LaLiga champs are interested in offering a way out for out-of-favour Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen. However, according to the Mirror, Chelsea have rebuffed Barcelona's move for the defender.

Barcelona are on the lookout for a defender as Samuel Umtiti remains sidelined due to an injury and the prospect of signing Christensen in January certainly got them excited.

Christensen was a regular in Chelsea's starting XI under Antonio Conte. However, Sarri has preferred Rudiger and David Luiz over the Dane and this has led to the youngster keeping his options open with regards to moving away from Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia has rejected the Catalans' approach and has told them that Christensen will not be sold in January.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad