Barcelona are reportedly prepared to sell 22-year-old midfielder Riqui Puig if an attractive offer comes their way.
According to a report by Spanish outlet Fichajes, Riqui Puig’s time at Barcelona appears to be nigh on ending. The 22-year-old midfielder has failed to impress new manager Xavi Hernandez, who is ready to sanction a sale if an attractive bid comes their way.
Riqui Puig has been with Barcelona since arriving from UFC Jabac Terrassa in 2013 when he joined the club’s famed academy La Masia. After that, he made swift progress in the club’s youth setup before being handed his first-team debut in December 2018.
Under the tutelage of Ernesto Valverde, Puig grew impressively before stepping up further in Quique Setien’s short stint as the Barcelona manager. However, the 22-year-old’s progress came to a grinding halt once Ronald Koeman took charge.
The Dutchman did not fancy Puig too much, with the youngster only featuring sparingly for Barcelona in the past year. As a result, there were suggestions that the Spanish midfielder could be on his way out of Barcelona, with several La Liga clubs showing an interest in him.
AS Roma have also recently been linked with Puig, but those reports claimed that he was waiting to see what the future held for Ronald Koeman at the time. The Dutchman has since been sacked by Barcelona, with Xavi Hernandez taking charge of the first team.
However, it looks like Xavi has not been impressed too much by the 22-year-old midfielder, who has only made seven appearances off the bench, raking in 135 minutes in the process. According to the report, Xavi has given the green light for Puig to be sold. However, Barcelona will only offloaded him if the offer from a prospective suitor is attractive enough.
Following the latest developments, it remains to be seen if some of the interested clubs mentioned above launch the offensive for Puig. If so, it will be interesting to see if their offer is good enough for Barcelona to cash in on the young midfielder, thereby bringing in some much-needed cash into their kitty. For now, Puig is facing a highly uncertain future at Barcelona, with a potential turnaround not being in sight.
