Barcelona have reportedly reached an agreement to sign Valencia right-back Joao Cancelo for a fee in the region of €30m.
The 22-year-old won’t move to the Camp Nou until next summer, but according to Sport, he has agreed a move and will put pen-to-paper on a five-year deal at the end of the season.
Both Bayern Munich and Chelsea were also said to be keen on the Portuguese international, but the report claims that Barca were always the priority. Nevertheless, he had insisted that he wouldn’t leave Valencia midway through the campaign.
With a fee agreed and all parties expected to wrap up the transfer, Cancelo will now focus on helping his current employers end the season well before opening an exciting new chapter in his career.
It will be an overdue yet sensible move from the Catalan giants who sold Dani Alves to Juventus this past summer and have struggled to find a reliable and consistent presence in his place.
While they’re certainly good enough to mask those problems more often than not, to ensure his side are capable of competing with the top teams and for trophies, Luis Enrique will undoubtedly need a natural right-back with great quality in both facets of the game to fill the role on a weekly basis.
It looks as though Barca have found that with Cancelo, but they’ve had to dig deep into their pockets again as for €30m, it’s not a cheap bit of business and the pressure will certainly be on the Portuguese ace next season to prove that he can make the position his own.