Barcelona’s former director of football Andoni Zubizarreta has revealed that he missed out on signing Ayoze Perez before the 22-year-old joined Newcastle United.

The forward moved to St James’ Park in a £1.5 million deal from Tenerife in 2014 and has scored 12 goals in 56 Premier League appearances.

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Before joining Newcastle, Perez had scored 16 goals in 34 games in Spain’s Segunda Division, and Barca’s former chief claims the striker was on their radar.

“A player I couldn’t sign? We tried to sign Ayoze Perez,” said Zubizarreta.

“I thought he was an interesting player, first for the B-team - like Denis [Suarez].”