{"id":62579,"date":"2026-07-29T13:49:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/62579\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:49:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:49:16","slug":"barcelona-in-contact-with-premier-league-defenders-camp-player-prioritises-playing-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/62579\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona in contact with Premier League defender&#8217;s camp; player prioritises playing in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The centre-back position is one department where Barcelona have not seen nearly enough transfer links in, and surprisingly so given how it has been labelled as a priority operation for a long time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Inigo Martinez\u2019s departure last season left a void that simply was not filled in all of last season, and to this day, Pau Cubarsi remains the only guaranteed starter in central defence for Hansi Flick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The club have had their share of superficial links, with Nico Schlotterbeck and Alessandro Bastoni standing out as some of the initial candidates linked. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent weeks, Aymeric Laporte and Cristian Romero have been some of the names mentioned as potential targets.<\/p>\n<p>Romero\u2019s situation explained<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As relayed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/VX3KSihSI3k?si=R3acPccVPKkt2j1Z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Matteo Moretto on Radio MARCA<\/a> in a recent update, Romero\u2019s priority is to play in Spain and the player prioritises options from La Liga on that front. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barcelona, in that sense, are well placed to land him should they make it a priority.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779539291_236_fc-barcelona-v-rayo-vallecano-laliga-ea-sports-4-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Bojan and Deco, Barcelona executives\" class=\"wp-image-179832\"  \/>When will Deco prioritise the defence? (Photo by David Ramos\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Currently, Barcelona have shown interest and remain in touch with his entourage over a potential transfer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, his signing is not currently labelled as a \u2018priority\u2019 as the club see other positions as matters of higher focus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is likely that the Blaugrana will take more interest and show urgency in the centre-back department once they arrive at a final conclusion on the centre-forward department.<\/p>\n<p>A harbinger of experience<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Romero\u2019s current contract with Tottenham Hotspur runs until the summer of 2029 and he only signed a new deal last season. However, he is pushing for a departure and <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/tottenham-defender-stalls-inter-milan-move-in-wait-for-barcelona-prepared-to-make-financial-sacrifice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Inter Milan are said to be leading<\/a> the race currently.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"695\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/atletico-de-madrid-v-tottenham-hotspur-fc-uefa-champions-league-2025-26-round-of-16-first-leg-4-1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Cristian Romero, Tottenham star\" class=\"wp-image-195428\"  \/>Romero is looking for a way out of Spurs. (Photo by Denis Doyle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At 28 years of age, the Argentine star brings experience to the table \u2013 something Barcelona have lacked at the back since Martinez\u2019s exit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a World Cup winner and runner-up in successive editions, he has also proven to be reliable under pressure and can be a vocal leader in defence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea of pairing him with Cubarsi, needless to say, paints a perfect picture on paper and it is difficult to imagine a scenario where the combination does not work out. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, unless there is a departure, Barcelona unlikely to make a move for the 2022 FIFA World Cup winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The centre-back position is one department where Barcelona have not seen nearly enough transfer links in, and surprisingly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,7840,223,4614],"class_list":["post-62579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-cristian-romero","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-tottenham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}