Italian club Genoa will reportedly look to sign the young defensive duo of Mika Marmol and Chadi Riad from Barcelona this summer.
According to a report by Italian outlet 2, Mika Marmol and Chadi Riad are the subjects of interest from Genoa over a possible last-ditch move in the ongoing transfer window. The Italian club will look to poach the central defensive duo in the coming days before the summer deadline.
Mika Marmol has been a mainstay at the back for Barcelona B for quite some time but is yet to establish a foothold in the first-team squad at Camp Nou. The 21-year-old has featured over 50 times for Barcelona’s reserve side while turning out once for the first team.
But Marmol wants to leave Barcelona in the summer transfer window to embark on a new adventure as he wants to secure first-team experience. Nearly half a dozen clubs have thus shown interest in the central defensive prospect, with the Blaugrana open to offloading him before the transfer deadline on September 1.
On the other hand, Chadi Riad is a Moroccan centre-back who spent his formative years at five clubs before graduating from Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy. The teenage prodigy represented Atletico Rafal, RCD Mallorca, San Francisco and CE Sabadell during his youth career while spending three years in La Masia.
The teenage prospect has now turned professional by becoming a player for Barcelona Atletic. But Riad might not be at the Catalan club for long, with several clubs in Europe keen on prising him away from the Catalan club before the summer transfer window shuts down, including Italian outfit Genoa.
The Italian club will look to bolster the defensive unit late in the summer transfer window to have a solid squad ready for a long 2022/23 season. Il Grifone went down to Serie B last season and will need a unit in the right shape to mount a promotion bid in the new campaign. And the Barcelona duo might be their solution.
Marmol and Riad need first-team experience to kick-start their careers. But they will not get that at FC Barcelona following the arrivals of Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen this summer. It will be interesting to see if the Italian club will follow up on the interest by approaching Barcelona for the duo.
