Barcelona Transfer News: Gabriel Barbosa Legal Action After Santos to Inter Deal

Barcelona are pursuing legal action after missing out on signing Gabriel Barbosa from Brazilian side Santos despite having a first option on the 20-year-old forward. 

The Camp Nou club's director of professional sports, Albert Soler, said that, following Gabigol's eventual move to Inter Milan, Barca are now looking to take action against Santos, per Sport:

"The club are in a legal process. We had a preferential option on the player which wasn't complied with by Santos. We're studying all the legal possibilities to take the case forward, but it's a legal matter, not a sporting one."

According to Sport's report, Barcelona were "not given enough time to make a decision on whether they wanted him" before Brazil international Gabriel moved to the San Siro.

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Inter paid €29.5 million (£25 million) to sign Gabigol on a five-year deal, with the youngster having won an Olympic gold medal last month at Rio 2016.

He netted two goals in six matches at the Games and departed Santos having scored five from 11 appearances in the 2016 Brasileiro, per WhoScored.com.

Barcelona spent much of the summer trying to sign a striker to act as a back-up to star forward Luis Suarez.

Per Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe, the Uruguayan was the one player for whom manager Luis Enrique did not have adequate cover ahead of the 2016-17 season:

Along with a number of other players from Europe, Gabriel was one of the Catalan giants' key targets, per Marca (via the Sun's Andrew Richardson).

Barca eventually signed Paco Alcacer for €30 million (£25.5 million) from Valencia in their final move of the summer transfer window after bringing in goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, defenders Lucas Digne and Samuel Umtiti, and midfielders Denis Suarez and Andre Gomes, per BBC Sport.

However, the Liga champions are clearly still aggrieved they were not given the opportunity to take up their option on Gabigol.