Barcelona keeping track of €65 million-rated goal machine for next year

Barcelona are currently fully focused on the signing of Nico Williams from Athletic Club, with the Spaniard being the top target for this summer.

However, at the same time, the club are not losing sight of players who could be valuable additions to the team in the medium to long term.

The centre-forward department is seen as a position that will likely need to be reinforced next year, with Robert Lewandowski entering the final phase of his career. And Barça have identified at least one possible replacement option.

Barcelona tracking Viktor Gyokeres

Indeed, according to SPORT, Barcelona are keeping track of Viktor Gyokeres of Sporting CP as an option to reinforce the centre-forward position for next year.

Barça trust Lewandowski for the upcoming season, more so with Hansi Flick in charge – after all the German got the best out of the striker during their time at Bayern Munich.

Gyokeres is regarded highly at Barcelona. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images)

But Lewandowski will be 36 soon and there are no guarantees about his plans for the next year and as such, Gyokeres has been identified as an option to reinforce the No. 9 position before 2025/26.

The Swede, who is valued at €65 million, has a contract until 2028 with Sporting CP, with whom he scored 43 goals and provided 15 assists this past season.

At 26 years of age, Gyokeres knows that sooner rather than later he will have to make the leap to a ‘big’ team. And that is where he sees the possibility of Barça on the horizon.

The Catalans’ sports department has seen him play several times live and the reports about him are more than positive.

The main problem for Barcelona is that it is possible that a Premier League club could decide to make a strong bid for the Swede as early as this summer. In that case, Gyokeres would fall off the list of the club’s centre-forward prospects.