After having signed for FC Barcelona in the last summer transfer window, the Brazilian striker Vitor Roque was the only addition made to the Catalan club’s squad in the last winter window. His arrival was expected to provide a significant boost to the club’s attack, but he has not had a particularly easy start to life at Barcelona.
As a result, he has not been getting a lot of minutes on the pitch lately, and there have even been reports of a loan being considered for the Brazilian to get him more time to develop.
However, as SPORT has reported, the player’s agent, Andre Cury, was clear that there are no plans for Roque to leave the club in the coming months, as he said:
“He’s very happy with the opportunity to defend the Barcelona shirt. He’s in very good physical shape and mentally strong, waiting for minutes to prove himself on the field. “
“He [Xavi] likes him a lot and respects his work. He also understands the situation, but I think he could have given him a few more minutes in some games. He’s not going out on loan.”
At the same time, the agent also made it clear that the Brazilian has a lot of demand in the market, and several clubs are ready to pay a significant amount for him:
“At the moment, there’s a line of clubs willing to sign him for 50 million. Barcelona has only paid ten, so it would be a profitable deal. With three operations like this, they could solve their financial problems.”
In recent weeks, Barcelona have been able to turn their form around, and are now competing both for the UEFA Champions League and La Liga.
But as the Catalans face very tough challenges in both these competitions, Xavi might have been reluctant to give a lot of chances to Roque instead of keeping his trust in more experienced players like Robert Lewandowski.
Still, Roque will hopefully get some minutes on the pitch in the coming weeks, if only to provide some rest and respite to the 35-year-old veteran Polish striker, who is going to be a key player for the Blaugranes in the coming weeks.
