Although the financial conditions of the Blaugranes have kept them from making their desired moves in the market for the last few years, there is no doubt that FC Barcelona still remains the favorite destination for a lot of footballers playing at the highest level.
This is definitely the case for the Villarreal midfield star Alex Baena, who, according to SPORT, has never hidden his admiration for Barcelona, and who has already rejected some offers from the Premier League as he wants to join only the Blaugranes once he leaves Villarreal.
The €50m-rated midfielder has been growing at quite a good pace in the last few years. Over these years, he has established himself as one of the starters at the Yellow Submarine team, and he is now working to get the same status in the Spanish national team, for which he scored a great goal from a direct free-kick in only his first official start.
Free-kicks are one of the specialties of Baena, and in addition to set-pieces, he has also impressed with his creativity, as he already has 5 La Liga assists to his name, the same as Lamine Yamal, and only one less than the assists leaders at this point in time, Vinicius Junior.
The Spanish midfielder has openly discussed his admiration and likelihood of playing for Barcelona in several interviews. In one such interview, he admitted that moving to the Catalan club would be beneficial for him, while in another interview he also admitted that it would be hard for the Blaugranes to get his price reduced from his release clause of €60 million.
Baena is currently very comfortable in Villarreal and would think about a move only if it is for Barcelona. However, Atletico Madrid have also tried to get their hands on the players in recent days.