Barcelona looking to permanently offload 19-year-old South American forward | OneFootball

Even with the winter transfer window now behind them, Barcelona remains as active and invested as ever. The club’s sporting sector is always working on potential transfers and ironing out details that need to be sorted out. However, there are definitely some cases that even Barcelona has trouble dealing with.

For the most part, former players that end up permanently leaving the club either leave behind an adequate transfer fee or at least take a useful sell-on clause with them. However, the issues with temporary departures can be all kinds of complicated.

When it comes to Barcelona, one such case is that of 19-year-old Brazilian forward Vitor Roque. Despite once being hailed as a pearl of South American football, his adaptation into European football has hardly been smooth and it seems now that his continuity is also in danger.

According to SPORT, Barcelona does not wish to send the player back on loan to Real Betis and the club is fully aware of his lack of involvement in recent games. With it looking like the player will have very minimal involvement for the rest of the season as well, Barça are looking at potential suitors for him now.

Ideally, the Catalan club would prefer to sell him permanently and recover the investment they initially made on him. However, even if the full amount cannot be recovered, Barça would still be content with at least recovery a major part of it through a transfer for Roque.

As per the report, Barcelona have found out that the player still has suitors in both Europe and South America. Brazilian side Palmeiras, for instance, has the funds to pursue the Barcelona loanee’s signing and would also be open to bringing him back to his home country.

Reportedly, however, the player is hesitant about going back to Brazil. Similarly, he is not too fond about the idea of going to the Middle East as well, even though the interest from there is dwindling due to the number of transfer options they have.

Another possible destination could be Portuguese club Sporting CP, who are already aware of the possibility of losing a key centre-forward in the summer. To make up for that potential loss, the Portuguese side would be open to bringing on board at least two strikers, and one of them could be Roque.

However, Barcelona will need to be smart about this while also ensuring that they get the best possible outcome. While a loan to Sporting is not completely off the table either, the ideal scenario would still be to see the player permanently leave Barcelona.