Eleven days out from the deadline, Barca still do not have a No 9 — and the list of names being put to them is getting longer, not shorter. With the Julian Alvarez pursuit fading, two new candidates surfaced on Thursday: Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres, who is said to be pushing hard for the move himself, and Club Brugge’s Nicolo Tresoldi, a 21-year-old the club are reported to like a great deal. Lautaro Martinez, meanwhile, remains the priority. This is the state of the Barcelona striker transfer search with the window closing on 31 August.
- Where the Julian Alvarez deal actually stands — and why the reporting conflicts
- What was said about Viktor Gyokeres “offering himself” to Barca
- Who Nicolo Tresoldi is, and why two outlets have him on the shortlist
- The in-house option Flick already has in the building
- What has to happen before the deadline
Background: the hole left by Lewandowski and Ferran
Barca went into this window needing a centre-forward and have spent all of it failing to sign one. Robert Lewandowski left for Chicago Fire, Ferran Torres left for Paris Saint-Germain in a reported deal, and between them they took a large share of last season’s goals out of the squad. The No 9 shirt was left vacant in the 2026-27 numbering, which is either a nice piece of housekeeping or a standing invitation, depending on how the next week and a half goes.
What Barca have signed instead is width and quality: Anthony Gordon from Newcastle, Karim Adeyemi from Borussia Dortmund, Rodri from Manchester City, and Joao Cancelo made permanent on Thursday. All useful. None of them a penalty-box centre-forward. Sporting director Deco has been open about the gap without naming targets, and Hansi Flick has said the club are still looking. The problem has never been intent. It has been supply.
The Barcelona striker transfer market, name by name
Julian Alvarez: the deal that will not quite die
Alvarez has been the preferred option since February, when Barca Universal, citing SPORT, say the club first made contact with the player’s entourage. The offer has stayed on the table, Barca have been willing to improve terms, and the Argentine’s own position has been encouraging from a Catalan point of view. Atletico Madrid have simply refused to engage — Diego Simeone said publicly on Tuesday that his striker is not leaving.
Here the reporting splits. SPORT’s version has Barca waiting on Atletico’s league game against Villarreal this weekend before deciding whether a path still exists, then going directly to the player. ESPN, carried by Barca Blaugranes, reported on Thursday that Barca have ended the attempt and are exploring other options. Barca Blaugranes put it more diplomatically later in the evening: the attempts “appear to be fizzling out”. Take the two together and the honest read is that this is a deal Barca have not formally buried but no longer expect to land.
Lautaro Martinez: top of the list, hardest of all
Lautaro has re-emerged and is, per Barca Blaugranes, the club’s priority. Culers have been here before — the Inter forward has been linked to the Camp Nou repeatedly, and he was already the leading name when Flick confirmed the hunt earlier this week.
He is also, on any sober reading, the least gettable of the three. Inter have no obvious need to sell their leading striker in the last fortnight of a window, and the fee and salary involved would dwarf anything Barca have done this summer bar Gordon. “Priority” in August often means “the name we would take if a miracle happened”. This looks like one of those.
Viktor Gyokeres: the player doing the pushing
The genuinely new line comes from Cope’s Victor Navarro, via Barca Blaugranes: the Arsenal striker is “offering himself to Barcelona daily”. Note the direction of travel. This is not Barca chasing Gyokeres; it is Gyokeres, through his people, making sure Barca know he is available. Navarro is explicit that it is not yet known whether there is any interest coming back the other way.
The Swede’s name has bounced around all summer, mostly attached to Atletico as the striker who would replace Alvarez if Alvarez came to Catalonia. That particular carousel has stopped turning, and the impression left is of a forward who wants a move away more than he wants any specific destination. That is worth something to a club shopping late, and worth being sceptical about at the same time.
Nicolo Tresoldi: the one to actually watch
Tresoldi is the name that has appeared in two places at once, which in a transfer window is usually the tell. Navarro says the Club Brugge forward is “very, very much liked” at Barca. Diario AS, independently, report that the 21-year-old Italian “features prominently” on the shortlist of alternatives to Alvarez and that the club are tracking him.
He fits a profile Barca have already bought into this summer. Jesse Bisiwu arrived from the same Belgian club in this window, so the scouting relationship and the club-to-club channel are both live. Tresoldi is young, cheap by comparison with Lautaro, and would not block the pathway of anyone in the building. If Barca sign a centre-forward before 31 August, the shape of the deal probably looks a lot more like this than like a marquee Inter forward.
The counter-argument: Flick may already have his answer
There is a case, and it is not a weak one, that Barca should stop shopping. Hamza Abdelkarim finished pre-season with four goals in three appearances, including the opener in the Joan Gamper win over Al Ahly, his former club, which he pointedly did not celebrate. Barca Universal, citing Mundo Deportivo, report the 18-year-old Egyptian is gaining ground as an option for Sunday’s opener at Elche.
What he offers is exactly what the squad lacks: a forward whose instinct is to occupy the box rather than drift out of it. He attacks space, finds finishing positions, and can hold the ball up and link when Barca build around him. In a front line stacked with players who all want to come towards the ball, that directness has value.
Flick also has alternatives he has looked at already. Fermin Lopez told ARA this week that he can adapt to a false nine, having played there in the academy, and Raphinha has been used through the middle in pre-season. Signing a striker in the last week of August, at a price set by a seller who knows you are short, is how clubs acquire the players they then spend two years trying to move on. Barca have done it before. They remember.
Future outlook: the eleven days that decide it
Three markers between now and the deadline:
- The weekend. SPORT’s reporting frames Atletico’s game with Villarreal as the point at which Barca decide whether Alvarez lives or dies. If nothing moves, expect a decisive shift towards the alternatives early next week.
- Whether Tresoldi’s name hardens. Two outlets liking a player is interest. A quoted fee, a Brugge response, or a club-level negotiation is a deal. Watch for the second thing.
- Whether Barca need to sell first. The exits are moving — Marc Casado, Hector Fort and Guille Fernandez are all being worked on, and Deco met Jorge Mendes on Thursday to push several of those files along. In this squad, money out has usually had to come before money in.
The most likely outcome, on today’s reporting, is a mid-market forward rather than a marquee one: someone in the Tresoldi bracket, signed late, asked to share minutes with Abdelkarim and with whoever Flick puts through the middle in the meantime. The romantic outcome is Lautaro. The realistic one has a smaller name on the back of it.
The verdict
Barca have spent a summer building a squad that is better in almost every position except the one they most needed to fill. Alvarez is all but gone, Lautaro is a long shot, Gyokeres is volunteering rather than being courted, and Tresoldi is the name with the most credible reporting behind it. Meanwhile an 18-year-old with four pre-season goals is quietly making the case that the answer was already inside the building. Follow our Barca transfer coverage as the deadline approaches.
