Vitor Roque says goodbye to Barça and Europe a year after arriving there

BarcelonaBarça have won the battle with La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation, which did not allow the sale of Vitor Roque. The Brazilian, who until now was on loan to Betis, will go to Palmeiras. The Brazilians are paying a figure of around 25 million euros for 80% of the striker's rights plus variables. Betis agree to let the player go in exchange for taking 30% of Ez Abde's federation rights. Until now, the Andalusians, who maintain good commercial relations in terms of transactions with the Blaugrana club, had 50%.

Barça signed Roque in the summer of 2023 - in exchange for 30 million fixed and 31 more in variables, which ultimately never happened - with the expectation that he would arrive at Barcelona next summer, but his incorporation was brought forward to January 2024. to convince Xavi Hernández. Halfway through the season at Barça, the 20-year-old Brazilian played in just 16 games (14 in the League and two in the Cup) and scored two goals.

His lack of participation led to a public outburst from Cury directed at the former coach, accusing him of not giving him any explanation for his lack of trust in his client. The signing has also had a backlash beyond the sporting aspect, because Víctor Font, second in the last elections for the presidency of Barça, asked Deco for explanations for the signing, which did not please the sporting director at all, who has filed this lawsuit in court, understanding that Font insinuated that there was malfeasance in Roque's incorporation.

Hansi Flick also did not count on Vitor Roque

With the change in the dugout, Roque's luck at Barcelona did not change either: Hansi Flick was not in the picture. A visit by a Betis delegation to Barcelona unblocked his departure with a loan agreement for one season plus an optional one and an option to buy. Wearing the green and white shirt he has participated in a total of 33 matches spread between the League, Cup and Conference League and has scored 7 goals.

Since the winter transfer market, his role has diminished due to the additions of Anthony and Cucho to the Betis forward line and, despite the fact that Betis would like to keep him because they are fighting in the League to get into European competitions and Cucho has not been able to be registered in the Conference League, Barça's intention is to transfer him. The recipient would be Palmeiras, who would pay a figure of around 25 million euros to obtain 80% of the player's rights. That amount is what Barça needs in order not to lose money. Roque is open to returning to Brazil, where he began to make a name for himself in the ranks of Athletico Paranaense.

The legal obstacle to being able to sell Vitor Roque now

The problem, apart from compensating Betis for the loss of its player three months before the end of the season, was how to unblock the operation normatively. Article 159.2 of the general regulations of the Spanish Football Federation defines that a loan can only be broken early "within the registration periods provided for", as reported by the channel. JijantesIn Spain, the transfer market and the registration period for new players closed on 3 February. This prevents Barça from undoing the loan with Betis and recovering the player to loan him out again, in this case to Palmeiras, which should sign him at the end of the season. Nor is it legally foreseen that the Andalusian club will carry out the new loan.

But the legal department of the Barcelona club clung to the regulations Regulations on the status and transfer of players of FIFA, which in its article 5.2 states that, although "a player can only be registered with one club for the purpose of playing organised football [...], as an exception he can be registered with a club for technical reasons to guarantee transparency in consecutive individual transactions". These "technical reasons" for carrying out the transaction are those that Barça has relied on to be able to interrupt the loan and transfer the player to Palmeiras.