Barcelona looking at former goalkeeper as a possible candidate to replace Mateu Alemany

Mateu Alemany’s departure has shaken Barcelona to the core. The sporting director decided to leave the team in June amidst reported disagreement and as a result, the management is now studying different profiles to rope in someone as capable as Alemany.

As reported before, Deco is one of the many candidates that Barcelona are considering and if a report from SPORT is to be believed, former goalkeeper Vitor Baia has now emerged as a new candidate. 

Baia, 53, currently acts as a sporting vice president of the Portuguese side FC Porto and the aforementioned outlet says that Barça have been studying his profile in depth for years.

According to SPORT, Baia is the right-hand man of Pinto da Costa, president of Porto and he has been a vice president of the club for three years. Interestingly enough, Baia joined Porto at a time when they were struggling to cope with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulation.

At the time of his arrival, Porto were unable to do much business in the transfer market but despite the obvious shortcomings, the team has won two of the last three league titles.

Under his regime as the sporting vice president, Porto managed to get out of the Financial Fair Play troubles in October last year and their financial muscle has been stronger than ever. 

Interestingly enough, Baia has a master’s degree in Sports Management and has earned himself quite a prestigious reputation for his work in Portuguese football and all this has not gone unnoticed at Barça.

What works in Barcelona’s favour is his history with the team. Now, he did play only two seasons with the team, but he has been a regular participant in the Barcelona Legends matches.

For what it is worth, Baia’s profile is different from Deco, who happens to have made his name in player representation as compared to the former’s reputation in inside operations.

And this is exactly what the team needs at the moment as they continue to struggle to comply not only with the FFP regulations.