Barça seeks 27 goals

BarcelonaJust as a few months ago Barcelonism celebrated the start of summer without restrictions in the fair play financial, the club is reaching the end of the transfer window with a degree of nervousness because it has not yet been able to complete the squad. The technical secretariat, led by Deco, has done its homework with departures and has fulfilled the coach's wishes by strengthening the wings. But there is still one position to cover, and not just any position: that of the center forward, which must be reinforced no matter what. The departures of Lewandowski and Ferran Torres mean losing forty goals compared to last season, and the figure rises to 54 if Rashford, who will not renew his loan, is also included. On the other hand, the arrival of Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi only brings 27, half, considering that neither of them is a specialist in the position of new.

With Ferran, whose departure will be made official over the weekend, Barça loses an intense player in pressing, although inconsistent in front of goal. Coach Hansi Flick opted for him at the start of the 2025/26 season and the Shark delivered in the first matches, with thirteen goals and one assist in the initial nineteen games. Afterwards, his performance dropped, with three goals in the next ten matches. And then, a two-month drought without seeing the back of the net, during which the Blaugrana team was eliminated from the Cup. The rush final was good, with five goals and two assists in the last seven games, including a goal and an assist in the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Atlético de Madrid which, unfortunately for the team, would be insufficient. Flick never saw Ferran as an undisputed starter, and that's why has offered little resistance to PSG's interest in signing him, regardless of him being Spain's hero in the World Cup final.

For all these reasons, signing a center forward was one of Flick's explicit requests, a coach who let Deco know that he considered it a priority to strengthen the attacking line. In fact, for this summer, when Barça was already expected to return to rule 1:1, the homework for the technical secretariat was to incorporate a new and a goalkeeper. But this second piece was already covered last year, thanks to the market opportunity that signing Joan Garcia represented, paying Espanyol just over 25 million for his release clause.

Harry Kane, Flick's darling who cannot come to Barcelona

Deco has been planning the squad for this 26/27 season for months, but has repeatedly run into problems signing a center forward. There are many on the market, but very few fit the profile needed by a Barça that has, as its main objective, to be crowned European champions once again. According to sources close to Hansi Flick, the coach thought that Harry Kane could be the best possible replacement for Lewandowski. A new pure, classic, tall (1.88 m) and effective (61 goals last season). The thing is that the 33-year-old Englishman, who had not won any titles in the ten seasons he played for Tottenham, has found a winning club in Bayern Munich and has no intention of changing his mind.

The Blaugrana efforts have focused on the figure of Julián Álvarez, although his signing seems increasingly difficult to complete. L'Aranya had publicly stated his intention to seek new pastures, but Barça has encountered every possible obstacle in signing him: an Atlético de Madrid that refused to sell him, a Mateu Alemany – Atlético's technical secretary – who has a poor relationship with president Joan Laporta and, therefore, does nothing but create obstacles for the blaugrana team, and a Real Madrid that intervened with an offer of 150 million that only served to drive up the player's price... The reality is that negotiations are stalled and that, with just over two weeks left until the transfer window closes, the hottest issue is still unresolved.

This Friday, transfer specialist journalist Fabrizio Romano had explained that, given the Madrid club's refusal to sell Julián, Barça had set their sights on Luis Suárez, a Colombian forward from Sporting Club de Portugal. A former player for Granada, Marseille, and Almeria, Suárez is 28 years old and last season scored 38 goals for the Portuguese team. His release clause is 80 million. However, sources from Barça deny that the Colombian is one of their targets in this transfer market and insist that priority number 1 remains trying to close the signing of Julián, even if it is a complicated operation.

The presence of Hamza Abdelkarim is not enough

In this preseason, with Lewandowski already out and Ferran returning this week, but training separately from his teammates, the Egyptian Hamza Abdelkarim has been Barça's starting center forward. At eighteen years old, he played in the World Cup even though he wasn't a starter for the Egyptian national team, which is why he had to settle for a few minutes coming off the bench. He didn't score any goals in the tournament, but he has scored two this summer with theblaugrana squad. The club's projection for him is to keep his reserve team contract and be part of the first team. However, Abdelkarim is not in Flick's direct plans, who for now is only willing to give him some residual minutes during the season. The coach still needs a new pure with more experience and there is only one week left for the official competition to begin.