Santos president Andres Rueda says Barcelona had past first refusal on Gabriel Barbosa.
Gabigol eventually signed for Inter Milan, with Rueda complaining about Barca's negotiating tactics.
Rueda told AS: "Barcelona had a purchase option for Gabigol and unfortunately the club didn't respect it in 2016.
"The matter was before FIFA and we started to negotiate. It was a very difficult negotiation. Rightly, FC Barcelona looked at us with a certain suspicion thinking 'we made so many agreements and they don't respect one of them...'.
"We show them that we take things very seriously. We have a management team with senior executives such as Walter Schalka, president of Suzano pulp, or José Berenguer, president of Banco XP. We convey credibility. We negotiated for almost a year, until we reached an agreement workable for both parties... a good deal for Barça and a regular deal for Santos."