Real Madrid Frustrating time for Valencia

Barcelona sign Andre Gomes for 50 million euros

Although Andre Gomes signed for Barcelona in the summer for 50 million euros, Valencia's sports director Jesus Garcia Pitarch admitted that Real Madrid were close to bagging the Portuguese midfielder.

In what was a frustrating time for Los Che, Pitarch noted that the club had originally wanted Gomes to go to Juventus as part of a deal to bring Simone Zaza to the Estadio Mestalla.

"This summer we tried to sign him [Zaza] before the frustrated situation with Andre to Real Madrid," he said.

"We wanted to do a deal with Juventus that included Zaza and Hernanes but Andre preferred to discard Juve and so it was ruled out."