The Catalan side were one of the leading contenders to sign De Ligt from Ajax, before he made a €75million move to Italy in July.
Barca turned their attention to Lindelof before the transfer window closed, but he ended up signing an extension earlier this month.
“Lindelof was perhaps Man Utd’s best player last season, and there was a lot of interest from clubs that are even better [than United] at the moment.
“When Matthijs de Ligt chose Juventus, Victor was pronounced Barcelona’s first choice.
“His way of playing, his DNA, is very close to Barcelona’s way of playing. He is one of the world’s best centre-backs with the ball at his feet, and Barcelona wanted him. That’s how it was. I can talk about that now.
“They contacted Ed Woodward on numerous occasions with concrete offers. I had a meeting with their transfer manager, Matt Judge, to try to make a transition. But they just said: ‘There is no chance. Victor is one of our best players’.
“It ended up being a new agreement instead, even though Victor actually had three years left. Usually, they do not make extensions with players who have so long left on the contract, but when there was an interest at this level they had no other option,” Cetinkaya told Aftonbladet.
