“We started communicating with Barcelona, its representatives came here to see him. Alexey is a fan of the Catalans, so our first wish was for him to go to Barça. The club's vice-president Javier Borges, who is in charge of the first team, visited last year's Russian Super Cup. At that time, they jokingly discussed the amount of € 40-45 million with him, and when Alexei scored the second goal, I - also with humor - said that I wouldn’t give it back for less than € 80 million, ”Kiknadze quotes Sport-Express ".
He noted that after the unsuccessful Champions League match with Bayer, which was attended by Eric Abidal, who was the sporting director of Barcelona at the time, the issue of moving to the Catalan club was sidelined.
“It is important for us that the conditions are comfortable both for the player himself, and for his representative, and for us. Here the issues of interaction will have to be honed and polished. In general, we are satisfied with the transfer, and the experience has been taken into account, ”added the general director of Lokomotiv.
Miranchuk, 24, is a graduate of Lokomotiv. He has 43 goals and 45 assists in 228 games for the railroad. The contract with the Italian Atalanta will be signed after the Russian undergoes a medical examination at a club from Bergamo.
Earlier it was reported that Semin criticized the management of Lokomotiv for the sale of Alexei Miranchuk.