There is always a demand at FC Barcelona to bring in the best players to the club in order to remain competitive. Even with so many financial limitations and restrictions, the Catalan club always remains adamant about having the best of the best. Whether they arrive from the academy or from elsewhere, Barcelona simply demands excellence.
However, the club does tend to look for players according to their actual needs at any given point in time. As such, it is gradually becoming quite important for the Catalan giants to keep an eye out for future prospects who can play as a long-term centre-forward for the team.
While Robert Lewandowski is currently enjoying a great run of form this season, his age is not exactly getting any younger. Consequently, Barcelona are looking out for players to help the Pole manage his minutes next season if he ends up staying and the same player would then also also become his long-term replacement.
One of the names that Barcelona reportedly likes a lot for this particular reason is Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres. Moreover, as per SPORT, Barcelona would even be willing to offer up a special swap deal to bring the Swedish forward from Portugal over to La Liga.
This particular swap deal would reportedly involve Vitor Roque, a young Brazilian forward who is currently a player for FC Barcelona but is playing this season on loan at Real Betis. For Barça, he is the right option to include in such a swap deal because he checks off several different things needed to make it happen.
For one, he is liked by Sporting CP and the Portuguese side even attempted to sign him from the Catalan giants in the past. Moreover, given that he is a centre-forward himself, the Brazilian forward would arrive as a direct positional replacement for Gyokeres as well.
As for the Swedish forward himself, his numbers speak for themselves. Over the course of the last two seasons, he has scored 63 goals and provided 19 assists in 66 games. Extraordinary numbers, and given that he is still only 26 years old, the player has just about entered his prime.
For his current club, the valuation that they have in mind for him is around €100 million and they want a significant offer for him to even consider selling him. However, SPORT reports that there is possibly an understanding between the player and his current team that would allow him to leave for around €60-70 million.
At that range, he becomes much more accessible for Barcelona and even more so if they can manage to include Vitor Roque in the deal somehow. Moreover, by the summer of 2025, La Blaugrana hope to be in a much better financial position and Gyokeres could very well be one of the elite targets that they end up pursuing. However, the player also has suitors from the English Premier League and those clubs with their financial muscle could end up being a problem for the Catalan giants in this operation.
Is Gavi well for today’s match
Barca all the way