The story of why Hirving Lozano did not play for Barcelona

Getting to play in Europe and staying there is complicated for Mexican players, although players like Raul Jiménez, Héctor Herrera, Andres Guardado have been able to stay in European soccer. That is also the case of Hirving Lozano, the 25-year-old forward who has been playing in Napoli since 2019.

In total, 'Chuky' Lozano moved 70 million euros in Europe for his transfers. After demonstrating all his talent in Pachuca, he joined PSV Eindhoven from the Netherlands for 25 million euros. In that way, he became the most expensive Mexican in history to go and play in Europe.

There, he scored 17 goals in 29 games and was the top scorer of his team. In addition, he was champion of the Netherlands' Eredivisie in 2018. Then, he was transferred to Napoli for 45 million euros. However, since Gennaro Gatusso is the team's coach, Lozano has not been a key player on the starting team. 

When Lozano scored the goal in Mexico's historic 1-0 victory over Germany in the 2018 Russia World Cup, Barcelona became interested in the young striker to share the team with Lionel Messi. Hristo Stoichkov, former player of the Catalan club, said that Lozano should play in Barcelona, because of his talent. However, Barcelona has never made an official offer for him.