Barcelona, Manchester United, and Juventus monitoring 18-year-old Brazilian striker

Brazil has always been a major hunting ground for club in Europe with a plethora of young and talented footballers bursting onto the scenes in the South American nation year after year.

Barcelona have always had eyes on young gems coming through in Brazil and have recently roped in Vitor Roque from Athletico Paranaense while maintaining serious interest in Estevao Willian of Palmeiras.

With Deco taking over as the sporting director last year, there is more focus in the Brazilian market owing to his connections and the club have developed a strategy to identify and sign youngsters before they explode in order to avoid bidding wars.

Barcelona monitoring Thalys

As mentioned earlier, Palmeiras’ Estevao, also known as ‘Messinho’, is on the radars of Barcelona. But it appears that they have set their sights on another up and coming talent from the same club.

According to AS, Barcelona are monitoring 18-year-old Palmeiras striker Thalys.

The teenage striker has generated a lot of buzz in Brazil after his performances at the Copinha tournament with Palmeiras’ Under-20 side, scoring three goals in five games at a rate of one strike every 131 minutes.

Those within the Brazilian club see Thalys as the ‘new Endrick’ of the youth team and has already become a regular in training with the senior setup even though he is yet to make his debut.

A versatile operator, Thalys can play as a striker, a winger, and even in midfield and is known for his touch, goalscoring instincts, as well as his ability to make driving runs forward.

Plenty of interest

Apart from Barcelona, the report states that Premier League giants Manchester United and Italian heavyweights Juventus are also monitoring Thalys at this point.

Furthermore, it is claimed that the 18-year-old had already received an offer in January, which was knocked back by Palmeiras. It must be noted that the proposal did not come from any of the aforementioned three teams.

Thalys is contracted with Palmeiras until 2026 and the Brazilian club believe that the youngster still has some way to go before he is sold.