The 'Mbappe formula' Barca are looking at to sign Vitor Roque

Vitor Roque is the 'No 9' chosen by the sports staff to arrive this summer and grow under the tutelage of Robert Lewandowski. The Ath. Paranaense striker is flying in 2023: 9 goals in 11 official matches between the South American U-20 tournament and the league. Last weekend he scored a brace for the 'Furacao', who are already in the semi-finals of the regional tournament in Parana.

Not bad compared to Endrick, the other emerging striker on the South American market, who has been out of luck in front of goal for Palmeiras since December when he signed for Real Madrid for 35 million and forced Juni Calafat, Los Blancos' director of football, to travel to Sao Paulo. His drought already extends to 12 matches in two months of official competition.

Barça's challenge with 'Tigrinho', as the 'Furacao' striker is also known, is twofold and interconnected. Firstly, it is about overcoming the pressure from Premier League teams, plus PSG who also see in the 18-year-old striker a future top player on the global stage.

Here, having the complicity of the player and his family, and his agent, André Cury (who was the executive of the Culé sports staff in South America for a decade) is key to curb the appetite of the big European teams and of Ath. Paranaense itself, who they do not want to organise an auction to find the highest bidder, which, in practice, would mean Barça losing the player.

In the offices of the Ciutat Esportiva, the 'Vitor Roque operation' has begun to be structured, aware of the constraints of Financial Fair Play, which in its most emasculating version is imposed by Javier Tebas in his merciless war against Joan Laporta's board.

And, right now, the option that is gaining most ground to make the signing of the Brazilian viable is the 'Mbappé formula' that PSG applied in the summer of 2017. After paying Barça Neymar Jr's termination clause of 222 'kilos', they signed the rising star from Monaco on a one-year loan with a compulsory purchase (to be executed in the summer of 2018) for a fixed price of 180 million euros. Thus, the Qatar Sports Investments club dribbled around Financial Fair Play.

With different circumstances, values and protagonists, Barcelona could apply the same 'modus operandi' for the same final purpose. Delaying the start of payment by one season (and dividing the total value over several seasons) for a player valued at 35 million, would allow Barça to sign and silence the prophets of the Apocalypse who proclaim that there will be no signings in the summer. There were a year ago, and there will be again from 30 June. Let nobody doubt it.