Barcelona's right-back plans: Cancelo on loan before signing Vanderson

The name of Joao Cancelo has been highlighted in the roadmap of Barcona's sporting department for this coming summer. He has become their No.1 target to reinforce the right-back position, which has been reluctantly occupied by Jules Koundé this season.

The signing of the Portuguese international, who had gone from strength to strength under Pep Guardiola initially, is subject to a loan deal from Manchester City. This is the same formula that was tried in the January transfer window, but the full-back ended up at Bayern Munich to the disappointment of Xavi Hernandez. 

Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano are keen to cash in and transfer him, a scenario that Barça are currently unable to complete. So Mateu Alemany, Deco (when he takes over as director of football) and Joan Laporta himself, with the help of Jorge Mendes who is the player's agent, will be rowing in the same direction to try and change City's position.

Barça intend to postpone their investment at right-back for a season. And, although in football everything is changeable, the technical secretariat already has a definite name for the summer of 2024: Vanderson de Oliveira Campos, the Brazilian who plays for Monaco and who has just been called up to the senior Brazilian national team for two friendlies.

Barcelona already tried a last-minute move in August last year to acquire the services of the young player (he will turn 22 this month) with great potential, who stands out for his physical strength, his ability to run cover the whole flank and his good technical skills. Monaco, however, closed shop and asked for 60 million euros, which signalled their refusal to part with the player. 

The signing of Vanderson will not be easy either, as he has several offers from the Premier League, including one from Manchester United. Barça, therefore, will have to convince the player and his camp to spend another year in Ligue 1 to prepare for his definitive jump to the new Spotify Camp Nou.

Barça's history with Vanderson is, for the moment, a series of misunderstandings, because in the 2022 winter transfer window, when he left Gremio for Europe, Deco, then an external advisor to Joan Laporta, recommended his signing to the technical secretariat... but Barça arrived late and the player had already committed to Monaco.