One of its former players who has been frequently in the news related to FC Barcelona in the last few days is the French defender Jean-Claire Todibo.
The Frenchman, who joined the Catalan club in 2019, was unable to gain the confidence of Ernesto Valverde, and, after two loans, left the club permanently in 2021 to join the French side, Nice.
The player has been performing quite well in France this season and is clearly on the way back to the top of European football. As already reported here, Premier League sides like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs are the strongest candidates to sign him in the coming winter window.
The defender recently appeared in an interview for the Ligue 1 Show, and as SPORT has noted, he shared an interesting anecdote from his time at Barcelona. The defender commented on how Messi was specially treated at the Catalan club:
“In Barcelona, they didn’t allow us to tackle Messi in training. It may sound surprising, but it’s true. We had to be careful.”
However, the defender was not trying to seek controversy from his comments, as he himself went on to explain the reasoning behind this special treatment for the Argentine: “It’s logical, he’s the best, we didn’t want to hurt him.”
There is no reason why these comments may raise eyebrows at Barcelona, but the Catalans have already been keeping a close eye on the defender even before he made these comments.
As already reported here, Barcelona have a clause in Todibo’s contract that will allow them to get 20% of any fee that Nice gets for his transfer.
As his value currently lies around €45 million, Barcelona can expect to get a significant sum for his transfer in January, which would be invaluable for the Catalans as they are looking to register Vitor Roque in the winter.
