Lamine Yamals Near £4.3m Move to Bayern Revealed

When the story of Lamine Yamal’s rapid rise is told, few would believe how close he came to leaving Barcelona for a fraction of his value. In 2022, Bayern Munich were on the verge of signing the teenage prodigy for just £4.3 million, according to German journalist Christian Falk. Bayern’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic and technical director Marco Neppe, originally travelled to Spain to discuss a move for Gavi but shifted their focus after watching Yamal’s training footage.

The scouts were left stunned by his ability and pressed his agent, Ivan de la Peña, to arrange talks with Yamal’s family. At that time, Yamal had already been training at a professional level since the age of 14, and Bayern believed they had unearthed a once-in-a-generation talent. Superagent Jorge Mendes later took over his representation, suggesting a fee of €5 million could secure him, but Yamal’s progress was too fast for the deal to materialize.