Barcelona frustrated as Manchester City join race for Xavi Simons
By Harsha Movva
According to reports, Manchester City are set to join in the quest for PSG under-19 player Xavi Simons after Pep Guardiola fell in love with the youngster’s style of play.
The English Club’s last-minute interest seems to frustrate Barcelona after the player’s homecoming was looking inevitable.
The 18-year-old, who was regarded as the most talented youngster of his time spent his initial days at the La Masia from 2010-2019.
However, the Catalans offloaded him in the 2019 season after he failed to register a new deal with the Spanish Club. He marched into the PSG U-19 squad and has been a regular starter ever since for the Ligue-1 side.
He even starred in a pre-season fixture with the first team of Paris-Saint Germain. His numbers for the Paris U-19 have been quite impressive with a tally of two goals and one assist in just four outings.
Barcelona was assured of penning down his deal for €20M, which is nearly half of his current market value quoted at €42M as the player expressed his desire of a potential La-Liga Switch with the Spanish Giants.
Manchester City are keen on the Dutch midfielder and there seem to be very few reasons to ponder upon as far as their Midfield is concerned which already looks stellar with the likes of Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne, and Rodri.
Landing Xavi though would be a long-term investment and it could be a masterstroke if the youngster achieves even fifty percent of his true potential.
Barca’s new boss Xavi Hernandez was confident of securing the deal with both the parties seeking benefit from it up until the Cityzens turned up to play the role of party poopers.
Signing the Dutchman seems to be a priority for the Blaugrana’s new boss and it’s looking feasible only by abiding by the player’s personal interest as there is a great contrast between both the club’s financial services.
So, would Xavi Simons assist Barcelona in bringing back the glory days of the past to Camp Nou or join forces with Manchester City and groom under the vision of Pep Guardiola, who is arguably one of the best in the business?