Barcelona continue to work on various transfer operations that could see the Catalan club reinforce their side with the future in mind. Signings made on low costs and at a young age could be pivotal to the further progression of the club in years to come.
As such, Barcelona continues to scout far and wide in their attempts to highlight and shortlist the very best candidates to divert their attention towards. The most recent of such candidates hails from South America.
Oscar Zambrano is a 19-year-old Ecuadorian midfielder who plays for Ecuador-based outfit LDU Quito. The youngster’s promising displays at the Under-20 FIFA World Cup would lead to heavy interest from top European clubs, including FC Barcelona.
At the moment, it is speculated that the amount his current side would wish to acquire in exchange for his services is around €5 million.
However, as per Spanish outlet SPORT, Barcelona are currently unwilling to pay this amount for a player that they hope to integrate into Barcelona Atletic with an eye to joining the dynamics of the first team in the future.
As such, amidst interest from several English and Portuguese sides, Barcelona hope to find alternative financial solutions that would allow them to lower the €5 million asking price set for the midfielder.
One possible option is that FC Barcelona ends up allowing LDU Quito to retain a future percentage of sorts to compensate for the lesser upfront payment that Barcelona would hypothetically be willing to pay for him.
The other possibility is that Barcelona includes other players as part of the deal to either completely negate the transfer fee or at least reduce the asking amount.
As it stands, Barcelona will need to act quickly if they wish to have a strong claim on the 19-year-old Zambrano, given that Chelsea has also been added to a list consisting of the likes of West Ham, Crystal Palace, Porto, and others as suitors for the midfielder.