Ismaila Sarr rejected a move to Barcelona when he moved from Metz to Rennes in the summer of 2017.
The Watford striker, who scored twice against Liverpool on Saturday, moved to the Premier League last summer for £40m.
But two years earlier, after his goalscoring exploits for Metz, a number of top European clubs were interested in the Senegalese, including Barca, but Sarr turned them down as he wanted to be a first-team regular.
'When I moved to Rennes in 2017, it was a last-minute transfer,' Sarr told Watford's official website.