Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu has confirmed that the club are chasing the signing of Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba in the summer transfer window.
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Barcelona transfer news
The Catalan giants beat Pogba’s Juve side 3-1 in Saturday’s Champions League final, and now want to make a raid on the Italian champions for their star player.
Goal.com have reported on Bartomeu’s interest, with the Nou Camp chief quoted as saying: “It is true that Pogba is a leading target of ours and obviously we are interested, but I can’t say anything more.
“We are forbidden to recruit players until January, so I can’t talk about it.”
The French international has also been linked several times with a move to the Premier League, with the Daily Mirror reporting today that Manchester City are among the leading contenders for the 22-year-old’s signature. However, it looks as though the Citizens may have to prepare themselves to miss out on the player.
Bartomeu’s honesty in his team’s pursuit of Pogba could indicate he is confident of pulling this ambitious deal off, but Barca are unable to register new players as part of their transfer ban, which lasts until January 2016.
This means Pogba could be signed by the La Liga champions and loaned back to Juventus, or indeed elsewhere, for the first half of next season. Alternatively, he could move to Barcelona immediately and accept the reality that he won’t play for six months.
The Catalans’ first signing of the summer, Aleix Vidal, has already accepted this and is planning to spend the first few months of the season integrating into the squad before making his debut in January [via Sport].
Luis Enrique already has a great many options to choose from in the middle of the park, with players like Ivan Rakitic and Andres Iniesta shining in this season’s treble-winning year. However, there could be room for Pogba as well after Xavi’s exit from the club [confirmed last month on BBC Sport] is set to leave a big gap to be filled in the team.
Pogba is not exactly the same style of player as Xavi, but has the ability to provide some of the goals and creativity of the veteran Spaniard, having contributed ten goals and six assists for Juve this season as they won a domestic double.