Chelsea looking to sign Bayern superstar inside the next 2 weeks, Barcelona confirm interest in French superstar, and more: Transfer Roundup, 30 December 2018

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified Dec 30, 2018 15:51 GMT

Maurizio Sarri wants is ready to make some waves in the winter transfer window

Barcelona confirm interest in Adrien Rabiot, deny foul play

Adrien Rabiot will be a free agent in the summer

Barcelona's interest in French superstar Adrien Rabiot has been well documented. Now, they have taken that up a level and confirmed their interest in the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder whilst denying reports which suggested that they broke a few rules in the process.

Adrien Rabiot's current contract at the Ligue 1 club is set to run out in the summer and Barcelona are looking to sign him on a free.

Barcelona released a statement today that read,

“Barcelona wish to address stories published in France regarding the signing of players from Paris Saint Germain, and make clear that they have not breached any rule in this regard,” the club said.

“The only contact made was during the month of August and one week ago. In both cases, this contact was made with PSG's sporting management to show FC Barcelona's interest in player Adrien Rabiot.

“FC Barcelona have always wanted to work with the utmost transparency in their dealings with PSG and with any other club.

“FC Barcelona refute the existence of any type of agreement with PSG player Adrien Rabiot.”

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