Barcelona are keen on signing German international Julian Weigl from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, it has been claimed.
The Catalans see the 24-year-old as a long-term replacement for Barca legend Sergio Busquets in the base of midfield.
As per Sport, Barcelona could tempt the German club to sell Weigl for a fee of around £20 million in the 2020 summer transfer window.
The 24-year-old joined Dortmund from 1860 Munich in 2015 and has gone on to make 167 appearances in all competitions. His contract with Dortmund expires in the summer of 2021, which means that he will be on the final year of his contract come next summer.
Weigl has also made 5 appearances for the German national team, but the last of those appearances came way back in 2017.
Is Julian Weigl the right option in midfield?
Barcelona’s midfield needs a serious overhaul as 3 of the 5 first-team options that Valverde has are above the age of 30.
It seems like Ivan Rakitic could leave (h/t Espn) the club, while Arturo Vidal’s future is also up in the air as the Chilean wants more playing time (h/t FCInternews). This means that they will need to add at least one midfielder in the next two transfer windows.
Weigl is seen as a natural successor to Sergio Busquets in the Barcelona team, as the Spaniard turns 32 next year and cannot play every 3 days for the Catalans.
The German is a good defensive midfielder who is a good passer of the ball, with a passing accuracy of 91.9%. He has also made an average of 1.5 tackles and 2 clearances per game in the Bundesliga for Dortmund this season. Weigl, though, has not quite progressed as a player since he came into the limelight two or so years ago.
It seems that his development has stalled which may leave some question marks as to his ability to play in a Barcelona midfield.
Barca have been linked with Emre Can, as well as Joshua Kimmich, two other talented Germans, who could probably be a better fit in this Barca midfield than Weigl.
At the moment, Weigl will not get into this Barcelona team and isn’t at the height of his powers, which makes us wonder why the Catalans would even be interested in him.
