Barça miss out on Andrey Santos, one of the Brazilians they most wanted

One of the young Brazilian stars that Barcelona's scouting department liked the most was Andrey Santos, an 18-year-old midfielder from Vasco da Gama, who they saw as capable of becoming, in the medium term, a starter in the first team, taking into account that Sergio Busquets will no longer be there for much longer. However, the captain of the U-20 Brazil team has committed to Chelsea, who will pay, SPORT has learned, 12.5 million euros in plus 7.5 in add-ons.

Barça tried to tie up the midfielder in February after seeing him in action in the Sao Paulo Juniors Cup, the traditional 'Copinha', where he ratified all the reports that various scouts had given with a string of good performances.

There was even a meeting with the president of Vasco, Jorge Salgado, in Rio de Janeiro to close the signing of Santos, who did not want to sign a new deal with his club and would be free in a few months. Salgado, however, rejected the 5 million euros (1.5 fixed plus 3.5 in variables) that Barça offered. Andrey, in principle, was going to join Barça B.

The young Brazilian, whom his country sees as having the potential to be part of this next cycle with the national team, will travel to London in the coming days to finalise the terms of the move to Chelsea.

The challenge for him is huge to adapt to the Premier League coming directly from Serie B of the Brasileirao, where Vasco played this last season.

With his signing, Chelsea begin to make moves given the possibility of ending up losing one or two of their midfielders, who both happen to be on Barcelona's agenda: Kanté, who Xavi Hernández likes very much and who is asking to tie his future to Barça in January, and the Italian-Brazilian Jorginho, who has already been negotiating with Mateu Alemany. Both continue without renewing at Chelsea, where their contracts expire on June 30 and, as of January 1, they can sign as free agents.

As for Barça, the impossibility of being able to tie up Andrey Santos, as well as what happened days ago with Endrick for whom Real Madrid paid 35 million, the economic difficulties that the club currently has with LaLiga's 'Financial Fair Play' rules is holding them back from snapping up the brightest talent in Brazil.