Exclusive: Barcelona turn their attentions away from Brazilian wonder kid

This summer will be another important one for Barcelona.

With Xavi expected to depart the managerial hot-seat, president Joan Laporta and sporting director, Deco, will not only have to ensure some squad evolution but prioritise the hire of a new manager.

The latter could well affect any incoming signings who will want to understand what type of project Barca will be working towards next season.

It could impact current players too, who perhaps have become comfortable under Xavi’s regime.

Messinho won’t be signed by Barcelona

In any event, one player that now appears unlikely to be signed by the club is Brazilian wonder kid, Estevao Willian aka Messinho.

According to Fabrizio Romano, there is a cogent reason why the player won’t be heading to Catalonia ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.

“The news that Barca are leaving the race for Estevao Willian aka Messinho isn’t about the club withdrawing,” he said to CaughtOffside for his Daily Briefing.

“The player has a release clause for €60m and Barca are not planning to invest that amount of money in that position right now.

“They already spent big money on Vitor Roque so it’s not a priority to go for Messinho.

“Chelsea and PSG have been monitoring him for a long time.”

Were the club able to have landed the player, it would surely have seen a new surge of interest in the club from the South American country.

Brazil have produced a long line of players that have ended up at Barca including Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Neymar.

At 16 years of age, there’s plenty of time for Messinho to add his name to that illustrious list, and it may well be that in another 12 month’s time, Barcelona are in a much better position financially and are able to sign off on the deal.

Until then, the club will need to make do with the players that they already have in situ as well as the others that were already planned to either be sold or brought in.

What’s interesting to note too is that the 2023/24 campaign will likely be seen as a poor one for the club, and yet they remain second in the Spanish top-flight with an outside chance of landing the title if they can beat Real Madrid and results go for them in the final stretch of the season.

They’re still in the Champions League at the time of writing too, and whilst they’re one of the outsiders in the final eight teams, stranger things have happened.