{"id":74352,"date":"2026-08-22T21:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74352\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T21:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:58:21","slug":"barcelona-in-a-race-against-time-to-finalise-new-striker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/74352\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona in a race against time to finalise new striker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barcelona are in a race against time to sign a new number nine this summer, and as deadline day nears, their chances of completing a big signing begin to dim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It has indeed been the club\u2019s priority since day one of the transfer window, especially with Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres leaving the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As matters stand, the only true number nine at the club is young Hamza Abdelkarim, and Barcelona have ten days to change that.<\/p>\n<p>Plan A \u2013 backed only by hope<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As relayed by <a href=\"https:\/\/as.com\/futbol\/primera\/casting-con-fecha-de-caducidad-f202608-n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">AS<\/a> in a recent report, Barcelona continue to retain Julian Alvarez as their Plan A despite the clear resistance from Atletico Madrid.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fc-barcelona-v-atletico-de-madrid-uefa-champions-league-2025-26-quarter-final-first-leg-1-1-1024x683.jpeg\" alt=\"Julian Alvarez of Atletico Madrid\" class=\"wp-image-208107\"  \/>Still Barcelona\u2019s Plan A. (Photo by Eric Alonso\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Argentine star is pressing for a departure this summer, and the fans have also made it clear that they are unhappy with him after the events of this summer. Atletico Madrid, however, refuse to negotiate with Barcelona at any cost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barcelona have <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/journalist-drops-major-julian-alvarez-barcelona-verdict-dont-think-he-will-stay-at-atletico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">still not given up<\/a> and continue to retain hope that the Argentine star can arrive. At this point, however, it would require a miracle for that to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Two Plan B\u2019s activated\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Spanish outlet further goes on to confirm that Deco is aware of the complication on the Alvarez front and has thus activated two backup plans for the club.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787435901_10_england-v-argentina-semi-final-fifa-world-cup-2026-18-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Lautaro Martinez, Argentina and Inter Milan player\" class=\"wp-image-209759\"  \/>Lautaro Martinez has strongly emerged as a backup option. (Photo by Buda Mendes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lautaro Martinez, as has been reported in recent days, is one of Barcelona\u2019s alternatives and is even open to the transfer. There is even an agreement with the player, but Inter Milan refuse to sell him, and even if so, not for a fee under \u20ac100 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second option is Nicolo Tresoldi \u2013 a name put forth by Hansi Flick himself. The 22-year-old Club Brugge striker will be available for around \u20ac25 million, but he lacks the experience that Alvarez and Martinez do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barcelona, thus, are locked in a race against time. They must decide at what point they abandon Plan A and activate Plan B with all might, for ten days is not long. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every passing day, at this point, complicates the situation astronomically, and Deco and Co. do not have long to finalise their new striker which is a non-negotiable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona are in a race against time to sign a new number nine this summer, and as deadline&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,223,674,8029,28012],"class_list":["post-74352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-julian-alvarez","tag-lautaro-martinez","tag-nicolo-tresoldi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74352","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=74352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}