At 18 years old, the Brazilian footballer from Athletico Paranaense Vitor Roque is close to becoming the third signing of FC Barcelona. The striker will sign his new contract in the next few hours until 2029 plus an optional season for 30 million fixed euros and another amount of 31 million in variables. Given the complicated economic situation of the Barcelona club, which lacks the financial fair play necessary to register players and with the priority of incorporating a defensive midfielder, the striker will stay in Brazil and will not join Barça until June 2024, so that His arrival does not compute in the salary mass of this course.
The signing of the Brazilian has the approval of Xavi Hernández and his coaching staff. They consider that he is a very young player who has shown great potential in Brazil. They also ask for patience for a center forward who can act as a winger but whose career is marked by precocity.
Roque signed for Cruzeiro when he was 16 years old. He signed his first professional contract in May 2021 and in October, still at the same age, he made his first-team debut against Botafogo in a Serie B match, the Brazilian second division. That debut was bitter. He played for 18 minutes before being substituted. His coach, former Brazilian coach and former Madrid coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo, noted that he was “unable to keep up.” He was improving his physique and six months later, in April 2022, Athletico Paranaense signed him. He made his debut in the Brazilian First Division that same month. This season he has 7 goals in 13 games.
Roque signed a five-year contract with Athletico Paranaense that will not be fulfilled. He was the most expensive signing of the Curitiba club and it will also be his best investment by receiving a fixed 30 million from Barcelona. If the variables are met, the payment will reach 61, exceeding the amounts that Real Madrid paid to Palmeiras for the Brazilian striker Endrick, for whom he paid 35 million down payment and agreed to another 25 million in performance variables. Altogether 60 million. Endrick, signed in December 2022, will join Madrid in July 2024 when he turns 18.
Roque is represented by André Cury, Barcelona’s former paid adviser in Brazil with former presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu. At that time the adviser received a salary of 700,000 euros per year.
In that period, beyond taking part in the signing of Neymar and also in his sale for 222 million, Cury also closed other not so successful operations such as Matheus Fernándes (7 million, Palmeiras), Yerry Mina (12 million, Palmeiras), Emerson Royal (12 million, Atlético Mineiro), Arthur Melo (32 million, Gremio) or Paulinho (40 million, GZ Evergrande) for the first team. The Brazilians Vitinho (loaned from Palmeiras in 2017), Igor Gomes (350,000 euros, Coimbra), Marlon Santos (5 million, Fluminense) or Gabriel Novaes (loaned from Sao Paulo) came from his portfolio for the subsidiary. Most of these signings have left an amount higher than the subscriber in the Barcelona box when they have been transferred.
The agreement between Barça and Paranaense for Vitor Roque was reached on June 18 for a fixed 35 million euros and another 10 million in variables. Alexandre Mattos, general director of the Brazilian club, traveled to Barcelona and met with Deco and André Cury at the Sofia hotel in Barcelona. In recent weeks the agreement has been delayed because Barcelona wanted to discuss some details of the contract. Last week it was Cury who warned Barcelona that they had to speed up the operation given the strong interest in the striker from clubs like Manchester United or Tottenham. Barcelona, ??led by Deco, accelerated the negotiations by renegotiating the contract for the final 30 million. Vitor Roque will pass the medical examination in Brazil.
On an international level, Barça incorporates the youngest footballer to make his debut for Brazil since Ronaldo, who made his debut in 1994 at the age of 17 years and 188 days. It was last March. Roque, aged 18 years and 25 days, made his debut in the friendly against Morocco and replaced Rodrygo, the Real Madrid striker. The opportunity was given to him by Ramon Menezes, the interim coach of the canarinha who had trained him in the sub-20. He currently continues to be the benchmark for the latter with which he won the South American championship in February. He scored six goals in eight games.
