Vitor Roque feels like a footballer again. Gone are the almost two months of absence of the Brazilian player due to his injury to the ligament in his right ankle. Now he is back in shorts with Athletico Paranaense. Tigrinho, as he is known, played half an hour last Saturday against Vasco da Gama (0-0) to regain his sensations on the field of play and he will do the same this Friday against Cruzeiro, his former team, on the next matchday of the Brasileirão.
The 18-year-old striker has his mind set on finishing his time with the Rio team in the best possible way, although on the horizon Barça is knocking on the door. The Blaugrana club has expressed on more than one occasion the desire to incorporate Vitor Roque in the next transfer market, in January 2024. An operation that gains in whole, since the culé entity could use the salary margin of Gavi, injured gravity, to register the Brazilian.
“The incorporation of Vitor Roque will be based on fair play. Depending on what we generate, we would do it. With Gavi’s injury, a new scenario arises and we are going to evaluate it based on what we can do. We are looking at the level economically, what can we do,” Deco, Barça’s sporting director, said a little over a week ago about the possibility of the forward’s arrival at Can Barça in the short term.
Tigrinho has 25 goals and eight assists this year between Athletico Paranaense and the ‘canarinha’. Wesley Carvalho’s team seeks to improve its chances of qualifying for the Copa Libertadores in the three matches it has left to play in the Brazilian league: Cruzeiro, Santos and Cuiabá. Two of them, away from home.
Vitor Roque could be playing his last games with the Rio team, if he finally ended up joining the culé team at the beginning of 2024. The footballer acknowledged in October that being under Xavi’s orders at the beginning of next year would be “very good” for his adaptation to the Blaugrana team and “starting the next campaign well.”
