Barcelona saw off competition from Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to snap up young attacker: Reports
Barcelona reportedly saw off competition from arch-rivals Real Madrid and Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich to snap up young attacker Abde Ezzalzouli. The Morocco international, Abde, has spent time at two different second-tier league teams before heading to Barcelona in August this year.
The coaching staff of the Catalonian giants were surprised by the quality of the young footballer after he made his senior team debut in a 1-1 draw against Alaves in October this year.
Abde's goal, Xavi's reaction 🔥🔥
#OsasunaBarça https://t.co/lXACVQHl42
Barcelona pursued 19-year-old with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich also in contention to sign the player. Eventually, Barcelona managed to sign a contract with the player for a total fee of £2 million.
Ramon Planes, former technical secretary of Barcelona, proactively engaged with the player to prevent any deal from materializing with Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. Planes earned the support of Barcelona football director Mateu Alemany and finally agreed to a deal with Abde.
Barcelona had to take a swift call to pay a hefty amount to deal with a contract termination clause for a player who has only played a handful of games. At the time, Abde had yet to showcase his mastery of the game on the professional stage.
Since his arrival at Camp Nou, Abde has played six games for the club and secured his debut goal against Osasuna. Barcelona manager Xavi is reportedly happy to have Abde on the bench and sees him as a potential starter in the future.
📹 🚌 Abde was cheered by fans as he boarded the team bus after the game #fcblive (via @esport3) https://t.co/eym9taNCEF
The Catalonian club are going through a rough patch after crashing out of the Champions League and being relegated to the Europa League. They are not even in the top 4 of the La Liga, which they have dominated for decades.
Grave financial woes have also hampered the club's plans to restructure their team after Lionel Messi left for PSG ahead of the 2021-22 season.
Barcelona draw Napoli in Europa League after shocking exit from group stage of Champions League
Barcelona will face off against Serie A giants Napoli in the Europa League after a dramatic and shocking exit from the Champions League this year. Barcelona lost to Bayern Munich in their do-or-die clash in an away game at the Allianz Arena while Benfica progressed to the round of 16 at their cost.
Manager Xavi Hernandez stated that Napoli is a tough opponent usually found in the Champions League. Speaking to the press after the Europa League draws, Xavi said:
"It's an opponent (Napoli) you usually find in the Champions League. The toughest [opponent] in this Europa League. It will be hard for us for sure but there are two months before we meet them, and hopefully, we'll be in a better moment."