Barcelona have been closely monitoring the free transfer market for new signings in recent years owing to their financial issues.
It has worked out largely well for the Blaugrana with the likes of Andreas Christensen, Eric Garcia, Ilkay Gundogan and Franck Kessie making an impact at the club, although the latter two stayed for only one season.
Last summer saw Barça bring in only two signings in Dani Olmo and Pau Victor, but they were looking for a new midfielder as well and had their eyes on the free-agent pool for reinforcements even though nobody arrived.
One such midfielder who Barcelona were tracking to sign on a free transfer was Piotr Zielinski, who has now confirmed that the Catalans made an approach for him during the summer.
Zielinski was out of contract at Napoli and had a host of top clubs wanting to sign him in a Bosman deal, including Barcelona, but ultimately opted to move to Inter Milan.
"There were clubs like Liverpool, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid interested in me, and I also received specific requests from Barcelona," he revealed in an interview with Kanal Sportowy, as quoted by Mundo Deportivo.
"However, I love Italy. When I arrived at Napoli I immediately felt very comfortable and for this reason, it would have been difficult for me to move to England," he added.
Zielinski revealed that the option of La Liga also appealed to him, but in the end, he decided to stay in Italy, where he arrived at the age of 18.