Barcelona negotiating with La Liga over Vitor Roque’s registration in time for Las Palmas clash

Vitor Roque has arrived in Barcelona. The young Brazilian phenom has already linked up with Xavi & co. in training and is ready to make his debut for the club of his life in the coming weeks.

There is, however, only one catch. Barcelona are yet to register Tigrinho with La Liga for the remainder of the campaign, and the youngster cannot officially don the Blaugrana colours in an official game until the formalities are completed.

Barcelona are no strangers to facing difficulties in registering new signings, for their financial situation and high wage bill does not offer much room for new arrivals. Once again, Joan Laporta appears to be faced with the same problem.

The registration hurdle

As revealed by Gerard Romero earlier today, Barcelona’s coaching staff are counting on Tigrinho for Thursday’s league clash against Las Palmas.

As such, talks are currently underway between the Azulgranas and La Liga regarding his registration and participation.

The Spanish journalist’s internal sources, however, relay that there is a complication. La Liga rule that the player cannot be registered as a replacement for Gavi as initially planned by Barcelona and attributes the latest hurdle to the ‘expendable value of the deal’.

The complication appears to be that Barcelona are only permitted to sign a short-term replacement for the young Spanish midfielder whose salary reaches up to 80% of the injured star. Roque, meanwhile, arrives as a long-term signing.

Presentation postponed

The new signing’s presentation as a new Barcelona player was expected to be held on Wednesday, January 3rd. However, it has been postponed to Friday, January 5th, in recent hours owing to a clash with the manager’s pre-match schedule ahead of the game against Las Palmas.

There is, thus, a possibility that Roque might miss this week’s game. If the formalities are cleared, he could debut on Thursday even before his official presentation.