Barcelona wants to prepare for the future and although Robert Lewandowski, author of 33 goals in his first campaign as a blaugrana, has two more years on his contract, plus an optional one, at the club they consider it a good idea to hire a striker who is beginning to learn the Liga, that he acclimatizes to the style of play, to the locker room and to the city to pave the way for when the time comes to take over from the Polish nine, who turns 35 in September. Barça wants to be prepared for when this happens and Vitor Roque is the favorite to make the leap.
The Brazilian striker is only 18 years old but his conditions and his progression fit with the top project that Barcelona is looking for. He is not a skilful winger like Neymar, Vinícius, Rodrygo, Antony, Martinelli or even Coutinho, Willian or Douglas Costa, but he is a nine from the area. With a powerful lower body, he is explosive, with a good shot and he knows how to use his body well despite the fact that he is 1.74 meters tall, and he even has a good header. In the sports leadership they believe that the Brazilian, due to his age, can learn and live alongside the Pole and that it will be good for him not to have to take the responsibility of being a reference from the beginning.
Barça’s intention is to block Vitor Roque this summer, for which it will pay to tie up the signing of the player, valued at more than 30 million by his club, Athletico Paranaense, which has 85% of his sports rights. In the event that for reasons of financial fair play, the footballer cannot be registered in LaLiga, the club would loan Vitor Roque until January or even June 2024. This option is very pleasing to Athletico Paranaense as they would have options to have the forward the final rounds of the Copa Libertadores, a tournament in which they are current runners-up after losing to Flamengo.
The young attacker, born in 2005 –one year younger than Gavi–, is represented by André Cury, a former Barça employee. Deco, who will be the new Barcelona sports director and a good connoisseur of Brazilian football, also endorses the incorporation.
Trained at Cruzeiro, like Ronaldo, at the beginning of 2022 he became Athletico’s most expensive signing, disbursing almost 5 million euros when he was only 17 years old. With the Furacão club, he has scored 9 goals in 39 matches of the first Brazilian team. In total, since he made his debut he has scored 17 goals, one of them on June 29 in his first match in the Copa Libertadores. He only took six minutes to beat the Paraguayan Libertad. He also scored the decisive goal in the Paranaense final, in April, to come back against Cascavel (1-2).
Vitor Roque stood out in 2023 in the South American sub-20 that Brazil won and just a month later, in March, he already made his debut with the senior team in a friendly against Morocco in Marrakech. He made him 162 days younger than Neymar on his day.
