Barça want to lock down Brazil striker Vitor Roque... either for now or 2024

Barcelona have already launched a new phase of 'Operation Vitor Roque', the Brazilian player who the technical secretariat describes as "a strategic signing" and who they will try to tie down in the coming months.

SPORT have learned the Catalan club's sporting leadership has already decided to make the necessary efforts to sign the 18-year-old centre-forward from Ath. Paranaense, who has made his full debut with the Brazil senior side.

The restrictive reading of the Financial Fair Play that LaLiga chief Javier Tebas enforces will not prevent Barcelona from making the necessary moves for 'Tigrinho,' whether this summer or in 2024.

The club has already set to work to reach a wage agreement with the Brazilian player. Once an agreement has been reached, definitive negotiations will begin with Ath. Parnaense, who have known first-hand about the Blaugrana's interest for months, because it was Deco, who is an external advisor to Joan Laporta, who told his former coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, who is now in the sporting direction of the Furacao.

Barça's objective is to contractually block Vitor Roque's future. To do this, they are counting on the complicity of the in-fashion striker in South American football and his family and professional entourage (the latter led by the agent André Cury, who was for a decade the Blaugrana's executive for the South American market).

There is a conviction in the offices of the Ciutat Esportiva that it will be the player himself who will stop the Premier League offensive. It should be remembered that Arsenal, who are the most active in England so far, and Chelsea have shown interest in signing the young striker.

POSTPONE HIS ARRIVAL FOR A YEAR

The constraints of Financial Fair Play will determine all the moves the club makes to strengthen the first team. Barça have already set to work to reduce the wage bill by €200 million (here there is an open debate about what to do with Jordi Alba or Sergio Busquets). 

At the same time, they will continue to pursue the policy of signing free agents that has worked so well so far (the examples to follow are Andreas Christensen and Franck Kessié).

Given this scenario, there is a possibility that Barça will have to postpone the signing of Vitor Roque for a year. The club, however, is aware that a deal has to be finalised in the coming months, as the pressure from the Premier League is very great and that, as the end of the season approaches, new players with a much greater financial capacity than the Blaugrana will appear.

Barça are preparing to close the deal for the Brazilian. Now it remains to be determined how it will be executed. It is already known that the club will need to make deferred payments but it is possible that these will start from July 1 within the accounting of the 2023-24 season.

As the club has a lot of registration difficulties (just look at the open war with LaLiga over Gavi), the scenario of not being able to register Vitor Roque is plausible. That's why Barcelona would close a deal, postpone his incorporation for a year and go for a '9' who would come free...and here all roads lead to Aubamenyang.