Brighton just can’t keep getting away with it! After multiple swoops in South America have landed them superstars-in-the-making like Moises Caicedo, Facundo Buonanotte, and many more, they are about to do it again.
The Seagulls are reportedly close to signing Valentin Barco from Boca Juniors for a fee of just €10 million.
That’s a ridiculously cheap fee for one of the premier talents in the South American continent who has positional versatility. Most importantly, he fits Roberto de Zerbi’s tactics of ball possession and movement perfectly.
Who is Valentin Barco?
The 19-year-old plays for Boca Juniors and has been deployed throughout the left side in his career. He has played as a left winger, left midfielder, and left-back.
Needless to say, his left-footedness and diminutive figure for a professional footballer (he’s 5’8″) make him a handful to deal with at his pace and agility.
His rejigging into a left-back has happened fairly recently and he took to that role well too. That position gives him more space to run into from deeper areas and he regularly provides attacking thrust from his position.
Moreover, it has allowed him to develop the defensive parts of his game which were a bit lacking.
To do all this at just 19 for a South American giant speaks volumes about his talent and personality.
Fit at Brighton
His positional versatility helps, but one should presume that at the beginning, he might be too slight to play left-back full-time in the Premier League.
However, in the long term, it is hard to look beyond that position for Barco. Pervis Estupinan has started turning heads for his performances at LB recently.
He looks set to follow the Cucurella route by joining a more “elite” club, although with Brighton performing the way they have been, “more elite” is used loosely here.
Estupinan replaced Cucurella and now Barco looks set to continue the chain of undervalued players in the market being snapped up by the Seagulls before their value explodes.
Transfer interest
It is a true coup for the Brighton project that Manchester City were interested in Barco but they are the ones ultimately sealing the deal.
The project on the south coast has reached a point where South American players are quickly making Brighton as the club of their choice if they want to go on to bigger and better things in their careers.
Besides City, Leicester City, Chelsea, and PSG have also been credited with an interest at various points recently.
However, Brighton is the best place for his development as he will find a healthy South American contingent and a history of success for that contingent to rely upon.
Barco has long been touted as one of the “sure things” whenever he leaves South America.
It is poetic then, that when he looks likely to leave now, it is to go to a club that is as close to a “sure thing” as possible in football for a South American.