Barcelona has reached an agreement with defender Koundé, 23, and is preparing a generous offer to Sevilla to seal the deal. The Catalan club intends to offer something around 60 million euros (R$ 331 million in the current conversion) to the Blanquirrojos and has already received the news from the Frenchman that he really wants to play for the culé team, as anticipated by journalist Gerard Romero. Negotiation is not easy, but it is treated as crucial by Xavi, who called the player more than three times.
Due to the difficulty of hiring the defender, thanks to Sevilla’s high request, the Barcelona board monitors others – not so preferred by Xavi – for the position. The newspaper ‘Sport’ indicated that the management of the Catalan club is interested in the also French Badiashile. The 21-year-old defender plays for Monaco and shouldn’t cost as much as Jules Koundé. The high cost of Koundé added to the unstable financial phase of Barcelona could heat up the talks between Badiashile and the Culés in the coming weeks, if the negotiations for Koundé do not advance. The idea is to bring another reinforcement to the defense, in addition to the newly hired Andreas Christensen.
The interest that Jules has shown in defending Barcelona, however, could weigh on the player to play for the team this summer – given the interest of other clubs, a little colder, such as Chelsea and Newcastle. It remains to be seen the position of Sevilla, which has not yet received any formal proposal from any of the interested parties (including Barcelona) and may opt for sporting gain in the case of the defender, as he is in a good financial phase.
If they go for Badiashile, in fact, Barcelona will have to hurry, given the competition from Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla itself. In the first two cases, Frenchman is not treated as a priority and for Sevilla he is seen as a possible replacement for Koundé. But with the recent moves in the transfer market, things could get complicated for Barça, who are slow to take a position on Koundé and his “plan B”.