Barcelona are looking to sell Croatian wonderkid Alen Halilovic – and want to do so in the same vein as the sales of Denis Suarez and Gerard Deulofeu, which would mean having the ability to buy the player back if they see fit.
Deulofeu spent time on loan at Everton and is now back at the Premier League club on a ‘permanent’ deal – but Barcelona could come back for him in the future if he develops how they hope he will. The same kind of deal is how they are looking to operate with Halilovic and West Ham are leading the chase, according to Spanish newspaper, Sport.
A big factor in West Ham’s approach for the youngster is Slaven Bilic’s close-knit tise to Croatian football – he is big fan of the Barca-B player and want to bring him to London
The player himself has no desire to play in Spain’s third division, where Barca-B currently find themselves – but Luis Enrique doesn’t feel that Halilovic is ready to step up to the first team yet. He is ‘expected’ to build a ‘rivalry’ with Real Madrid’s Martin Odegaard – who is in Los Blancos first team already.
Halilovic has recently turned 19 so will want to progress uickly from now on so as to have a chance of becoming a fully-fledged Barcelona player. Linking up with Slaven Bilic at West Ham could give him that platform – but Sevilla, who incidentally also had Deulofeu in their ranks before his permanent move to Everton, are also interested.
He is currently with the Barcelona squad who are in the United States playing in the International Champions Cup – the midfielder could play against Manchester United this weekend.
