Andre Cury confirms Barcelona's offer for Brazil striker Vitor Roque

FC Barcelona are one of the clubs most interested in signing the young Brazilian starlet Vitor Roque. According to the former Barça scout in the country, André Cury, they have already made an offer to Athletico Paranaense, which was rejected as insufficient.

"There was an English club, I don't want to name names, a Spanish club that already made an offer, an Italian club. We got more or less a value of 25 million euros, and we immediately rejected it, because I understand that the player has a higher value than that, because even some players were sold in Brazil for 20 million euros," Cury told 'Globo Esporte'.

Cury is convinced that Vitor Roque is ready to make the leap to European football. So is another promising striker, Yuri Alberto of Corinthians.

"He has managed to show that he has all the physical, mental and technical characteristics to be playing for a big club in Europe. He and Yuri Alberto are two players who work hard physically and bring a lot to the team and are modern players, things that are missing. The big No9s in Europe are older, like Benzema, Cavani, Lewandowski, and it will open up that gap for these players," he said. 

As SPORT explained, Barça have taken the lead in the race for Vitor Roque through contacts between Deco -- an adviser to Joan Laporta -- and former Portugal and Chelsea coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, now the director of football at Ath. Paranaense.