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| Gabriel ‘Gabigol' Barbosa awaits Barça call? |
Santos striker Gabriel Barbosa also known as Gabigol has rejected an offer to join Italian champions Juventus this summer and is hoping that FC Barcelona make a move to sign him soon, according to a report by Catalan publication SPORT.
According to the report, Juventus are strongly interested in signing the 19-year old goal-machine to strengthen their attack for the season and made a first offer of €20 million for the player who has rejected to move for that amount.
Gabigol is currently with the Brazil team preparing for the 2016 Rio Olympics and the player has managed to postpone the transfer saga until after the tournament as he hopes to get interests from FC Barcelona despite not fitting the profile of what the club is looking for this summer.
The good news is that Barça have first option to sign Gabigol from Santos after they paid to secure his preferential right during the negotiation for Neymar in 2013. The player's agent and Father Valdemir Barbosa sees the bid from Valencia as not pleasing enough for him and his client who will only get €2M if the transfer was to go through.
“Before we arrived here, I participated in the negotiations, but when from then, I left them for my father to handle. Soon there will be a decision,” Gabigol said in a news conference in Brazil.
“I've not signed with anyone yet. I'm a Santos player and I'm very happy to represent the team here. Gradually things will be resolved.”
Gabigol also praised Barça player Neymar during the conference and is looking forward to featuring alongside him in the 2016 Rio Olympic games.
“I played with him on my debut. It was a farewell after a short time.
“It's very nice to play with him. He's a star, you don't need to say anything else. It's very easy when you play with him,” he concluded.
Reports on Thursday also stated that FC Barcelona technical secretary Robert Fernandez flew to South America for negotiations, but it is unclear if it will be for Gabigol.
May be worth noting his agent said yesterday Gabigol wants Juventus, and this report is just Sport trying to make Barcelona look good, as they always do…
You have a point. But Gabigol said nothing is done yet. Juventus still have Dybala and with the arrival of Higuain for a record fee, Gabigol's playing time is in jeopardy. And it would be better playing as a sub at Barça than at Juventus. I guess.