La Liga superpowers Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are both interested in signing Paris-Saint Germain right-back Serge Aurier.
Serge Aurier has cultivated something of a bad boy image for his off-field antics. He was suspended by PSG in February for comments he made about Angel Di Maria, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and former manager Laurent Blanc and was only recalled to first team training after a month.
September of 2016 saw him being charged with assaulting a police officer and is currently appealing a 2-month prison sentence. However, his abilities remain undoubted and that hasn’t stopped European giants like Manchester United and Manchester City from keeping an eye on him. This season, under Unai Emery, he has made only 12 appearances so far with PSG currently second on the Ligue 1 table. Given the way things are, he might be willing to consider a move away from the Parc De Princes.
According to Italian publication Calciomercato, La Liga giants Barcelona and Atletico Madrid will rival each other for the Ivorian’s signature. However, Atletico will not be able to be able to sign anyone until the 2017/18 season, which could give the Blaugrana the upper hand. Disciplinary and off-field issues aside, the 23-year-old is a fantastic right back and still has the best years of his career ahead of him.
Barcelona went through the entire summer transfer window being linked with some of the top right backs all across Europe, but were unable to lure any of them to the Nou Camp. Some of their most notable targets included Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta, Napoli’s Elseid Hysaj and Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin.
The Catalan giants have had to resort to playing midfielder Sergi Roberto at right-back with Aleix Vidal restricted to the bench. While Roberto has managed to put in decent performances week after week, it has proved costly for Barcelona, as they currently sit at 2nd place in the La Liga, 6 points behind Real Madrid and face them tonight in the Clasico.
Barcelona will be joined by Atletico Madrid, according to Fichajes.net. Atletico, arguably, have one of the best defensive setups in Europe. But they will be aware of the need to prepare for the future. Diego Godin, Filipe Luis and Juanfran are all over 30 and Jose Gimenez has been linked with a move away from the Vicente Calderon for some time now.
While they do have young defenders like Šime Vrsaljko and Lucas in their ranks, Aurier is vastly more experienced and would be a perfect long term option for Los Rojiblancos. His style of play would help him fit right in to Diego Simeone’s side. However, their transfer ban may prove to be costly with regard to this transfer and they will likely have to wait and hope that Aurier doesn’t make the switch to their rivals before the 2017-18 season.
