Why is Brazil Star Coutinho choosing Portuguese citizenship?
Under prevailing rules set by Spanish Football Federation, no Spanish club can have more than 3 non-EU players in the squad, and Barcelona fulfilled that quota with the signing of Yerry Mina (Colombia), Philippe Coutinho (Brazil), and Paulinho (Brazil) last season.
However, the Blaugrana are all set to announce the arrival of Arthur Melo, Brazilian midfielder from Gremio, and that means they have to offload one of their existing South American players.
Although Colombian defender Mina is set to be sent on loan to make room for Arthur (as per reports), the Catalan side are still in a fix as they have several other non-European players in their radar.
According to transfer gossip, Barcelona are interested in multiple international players -- including Lozano (Mexico), Willian (Brazil), and Pavon (Argentina) -- as they plan to bolster their squad for becoming best in Europe again.
Philippe Coutinho, Brazil’s brightest performer in World Cup 2018, is ready to help his club by applying for Portuguese nationality. The former Liverpool playmaker is currently eligible for Portuguese citizenship through his wife Aine, who is a Portuguese.
As per Portuguese laws, Couta could have applied for nationality back in 2015, after completing three years of conjugal life, and finally, he has found probably the right motivation to be an EU citizen.
Interestingly, two other Latin American stars of the Catalan club, Leo Messi (Argentina) and Luis Suarez (Uruguay) are already EU citizens. The Argentine captain qualified for Spanish citizenship back in 2015 due to a Spanish great grandfather, whereas his Uruguayan team-mate obtained Italian nationality, thanks to his wife Sofia, shortly after joining Barcelona in 2014.
Paulinho, having received two recent offers, could leave Barca this summer as he recently admitted that he would consider his future after the World Cup. Eventually, if the Brazilian leaves and Barcelona manage to send Mina on loan, Couta’s EU citizenship would mean they have two empty slots to sign two new non-EU players.