Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Man United closely tracking 21-year-old left-back

Barcelona are well-stocked in the left-back position at the moment with Alejandro Balde being the first choice and Gerard Martin providing cover as backup.

Alex Valle will also be back in the mix next season after he completes his loan spell away at Celtic.

Despite that, recent reports suggested that the Blaugrana are not ruling out the possibility of reinforcing the left-back position in the summer with a new signing.

Alvaro Carreras on the agenda

To that end, it appears that Barcelona have already identified a possible target in the form of SL Benfica left-back Alvaro Carreras.

Indeed, according to O Jogo in Portugal, Barcelona are one of the three European heavyweights closely monitoring the 21-year-old Spaniard’s progress.

Along with the Blaugrana, their arch-rivals Real Madrid and Alvaro’s former club, Manchester United, are also keenly tracking the youngster’s development at Benfica.

Alvaro came through the youth ranks at Real Madrid before moving to Manchester United in 2020. After a series of loan spells, he ended up at Benfica in January this year, on a temporary arrangement with a buy option which the Portuguese club activated in the summer.

Despite making a slow start, Alvaro has slowly grown in stature at Benfica and has thus far made 25 appearances in which he has one goal and one assist.

As per the report, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester United are all making live observations and data collection to prepare the final report on the youngster that will be made available to their coaches and directors.

Alvaro has a contract with Benfica until the summer of 2029 and the Portuguese giants are known to extract a premium fee for their players.

It must however be noted that the Premier League giants do have a buyback option for the 21-year-old Spanish youth international.