European giants best placed to sign Barcelona starlet, waiting on Xavi’s green light

While many in the Barcelona administration see Nico Gonzalez to be a legitimate option to take over from Sergio Busquets in the defensive midfield, Xavi Hernandez does not agree. The La Masia graduate still requires finetuning in the manager’s eyes and appears to be close to leaving on another loan spell.

Barcelona are close to completing the signing of their new pivot Oriol Romeu. The Spaniard will likely travel to the United States for preseason, and there thus does not appear to be room for Nico in the squad this term.

According to Sergi Capdevila, Porto are the best-placed club to incorporate the youngster from Barcelona. They only wait for Xavi to formally liberate Nico and green-light his loan exit for the Portuguese giants to land the 21-year-old midfielder.

It is further claimed that the Portuguese club have already reached an agreement with the midfielder’s agent Jorge Mendes. At the moment, they are the best placed to land him this summer.

His move to Portugal would be on loan and would come as a win-win situation for all parties involved. Porto secure the arrival of a quality defensive midfielder to cover a gaping hole in their squad while the Catalans benefit from their player getting regular game-time.

As it stands, Nico is likely to travel to the US with Barcelona in the days to come. However, it appears to be only a matter of time before negotiations are advanced and the player seeks permission to leave the group to complete his transfer.

The 21-year-old made 26 La Liga appearances for Valencia on loan last season, scoring one goal and providing one assist in the process. Further, he averaged 0.5 key passes and 1.1 successful dribbles in addition to his six defensive actions per game.