Barcelona star Gerard Pique failed in a bid to buy Notts County this summer, according to a report in The Athletic.
The Spanish defender was understood to have been enticed by the Magpies’ status as the world’s oldest professional club and wanted to promote homegrown talent.
The report claims that representatives from Pique’s Kosmos Global Holding Group held talks with previous owner Alan Hardy in London.
But Notts’ financial problems, and an ensuing date in the High Court due to an unpaid tax bill, forced Hardy to accept an offer from Kristoffer and Alexander Reedtz at the end of July.
Founded in 2017, by Pique and Japanese e-commerce king Hiroshi Mikitani - whose firm Rakuten sponsors Barcelona - Kosmos is a sports, media and entertainment company.
Among its investors are Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and American technology billionaire Larry Ellison.
Kosmos has already acquired two football clubs in FC Andorra and Gimnastic Manresa and the plans are to invest in the youth set-up and and fund the club by player sales.
According to The Athletic journalist Matt Slater, that was Kosmos’ plan for Notts - but they did not have time to complete the due diligence process as a result of the club’s perilous financial state.
In the end, County were eventually sold to the Reedtz brothers on July 26 and the Danish brothers, who own the betting analysis firm Football Radar, have made an excellent start to life at Meadow Lane.
The duo have backed the manager Neal Ardley and stabilised the club which now sits eighth in the National League table.
Ardley’s side beat Dagenham 2-0 on Tuesday night and have now lost just two of their last 13 games.
