Alan Varela, the new Busquets at Boca liked by Barca

Barcelona need a defensive midfielder to back up and eventually replace Sergio Busquets and they are looking at the market for options.

Both Xavi and Jordi Cruyff think the best alternative is Real Sociedad’s Zubimendi, but there are various reports about other players too at the club.

One of them is Alan Varela, from Boca Juniors, a player who curiously grew up in a Barça dynamic, and for whom several European teams now pine after.

Varela's history is closely linked to Barça. The Argentine midfielder was trained at the soccer school that the Blaugrana have in Buenos Aires and from there he went to Boca Júniors through the agreement that the two clubs have as a collaboration. Barça invested in the school, Boca could take players from there and in return the Blaugrana have priority in signing the most outstanding players from the Boca youth academy. Varela is the confirmation of the success of this formula.

Varela grew up playing the Barça style, with a clear idea about keeping possession and grew up playing in the position of defensive midfielder. His adaptation was spectacular and Boca ended up capturing him to give him a chance in the first team. He has established himself as the undisputed starter and is succeeding in the position of Sergio Busquets convincingly. There are already several teams interested in signing him and the Argentines are asking for around 20 million euros for him. Rumors already place him at Benfica if, finally, Enzo Fernandez is signed by Liverpool.

At Barça they have excellent reports from their scouts and youth coaches in Argentina. And so they have told the sports department. And they understand that he is mature enough to make the leap to Europe with full guarantees. However, back in the day Barça rejected the signing of Enzo Fernández when he was good to go, not wanting to invest 15 million and now there are doubts about Varela because of the risk of the operation.