Squandered a precious opportunity for Barcelona: Real Betis reveals the reason for rejecting the Ezzalzouli offer | Goal.com

Veröffentlicht am 03 Sep 2026 | Lesezeit: 2 Minuten

Real Betis president Ángel Haro has revealed his club turned down a major deadline-day offer for Moroccan winger Abdessamad Ezzalzouli, opting instead to keep the player.

Barcelona would have banked a significant windfall had the deal gone through, with the Catalan club still holding around 20% of the player's economic rights.

Speaking at a press conference to review Betis' transfer window, Haro admitted the club needed a big sale to balance the books, and that some departures had been discussed during the window.

As reported by Catalan newspaper "Sport", the Betis chief said: "We wanted another player to leave, and when the players say they do not want to leave, nothing can be done, because they have contracts that must be respected."

"We should have concluded a major sale to balance our books," he added. "We have operating expenses relating to the team's wages, and ordinary revenues are not enough to cover them if we want to maintain this group and not settle for competing between eighth and fifteenth place."

That opportunity duly arrived on deadline day, Haro revealed, when Betis fielded an offer he called major for Ezzalzouli.

"There was an opportunity to complete a major sale of the player on the last day of the transfer window," he said.

Betis rejected it. The bid fell well short of what they wanted to part with the player, a figure close to his 60 million euro release clause.

Haro explained: "We felt that on the final day we should demand an amount close to the value of the release clause. The offer did not reach the required figure, and so we decided to keep Ezzalzouli within the team, especially in a season in which we are competing in the Champions League."

"We may have missed out on a departure or a major sale in our planning, but in the end we felt that the offer submitted for Ezzalzouli was insufficient," he added. "We will see in the future whether the decision was right or not. If the player has a great season, then the decision to keep him will have been the right one."

Haro would not name the club behind the deadline-day offer, though earlier press reports pointed to Everton.

Betis' decision to keep the 24-year-old Moroccan cost Barcelona a payday, given the Catalan club owns around 20% of the player's economic rights.

A fifth of the offer would have landed in Barcelona's coffers, with Ezzalzouli one of Betis' standout performers. Instead, the Andalusians settled the matter by keeping him.

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