Vitor Roque arrives in Barcelona, ​​“Tigrinho” excites Montjuïc | Soccer | Sports

Vitor Roque arrived in Barcelona as if he were a celebrity thanks to the many members of his family who accompanied him, the suitcases he traveled with and the wait generated at El Prat airport. The media coverage he has received since leaving Curitiba airport has been exhaustive and even surprising given that he is barely 18 and has only played half an hour with the team senior of Brazil during a friendly match against Morocco. Barcelona fans, however, need a footballer who arouses enthusiasm a few days before the Three Kings, after his team was seven points behind the leadership shared by Madrid and Girona while Athletic is only behind three points from the Champions zone. The news is that Vitor Roque chose Barça from different offers once the Barça club agreed to pay 30 million – plus 31 million variables – for the Athletico Paranaense striker.

Money and youth are capable of moving mountains like Montjuïc. At least, Barcelona hopes so. The team needs many goals to fuel a club in a precarious situation due to social demobilization and accumulated debts and those that will come with Espai Barça. The situation requires urgent measures and Barcelona has brought forward to the winter market the incorporation of Vitor Roque, initially agreed for the summer of 2024. The Barça entity must now negotiate his registration in La Liga, even if he is on loan until the season. 2024-2025, and accelerate the adaptation of an attacker who has not played in Brazil for several days. The bet at the moment is on Vitor Roque rather than on a midfielder to replace the prolonged absence of Gavi, who fell in November during the Spain-Georgia match.

“It gives us hope, work, goals, sacrifices,” Xavi maintained. “We will help him integrate as quickly as possible, while keeping in mind that we cannot put pressure on young people; “We have to go little by little,” added the Barcelona coach. Vitor Roque has 28 goals and 11 assists in the 81 matches he has played for Athletico Paranaense. He also scored six goals in the last South American U-20 championship and his record would have been better if he had not been injured last September in a match against Internacional Porto Alegre. Born on February 28, 2005 in Timóteo, Minas Gerais, he trained at América Mineiro and signed in 2022 for Athletico Parananse after a season at Cruzeiro, the club where he made his name – before become its main shareholder – the Monster Ronaldo, the striker who also joined Barça in 1996.

Ronaldo was then 19 years old and came from PSV Eindhoven, the same club from which Romario arrived at the Camp Nou at 27 in 1993. Equally decisive were the signings of Rivaldo at 27 in 1997, from Deportivo, and Ronaldinho to 23 years old, hired at Paris Saint-Germain. It was not the same for Roberto Dinamita, who died at the age of 68 and who was an idol of Vasco da Gama, immortalized at the Maracana. This striker arrived in Barcelona in January 1980 in exchange for 55 million pesetas to replace Krankl, Pichichi of the 1978-1979 season (29 goals) and who did not count for Rifé. The Catalan coach, however, only lasted three additional matches and was replaced by Helenio Herrera, who preferred to put the libero Canito as striker rather than Dinamita, who returned to his country in April after 11 matches and three goals, including two to his debut against. Almeria.

Competition and alternatives will increase with an 18-year-old striker

Some analysts notice in the silhouette of Vitor Roque, 1.72 m and 78 kilos, a certain resemblance to Ronaldo, especially due to his power, perceptible when standing out and attacking spaces, one of his most major flaws. forward if Ferran Torres is excepted. The Barça team fights with the surfaces and with the goals – it has up to 12 goals – after last season it won precisely the Zamora Trophy with Ter Stegen and the Pichichi with Lewandowski. This task has not been consolidated a year later, a circumstance that forces us to realize that it could have been a more circumstantial than structural situation in a team coached by a coach who prioritizes the game and with style like Xavi. Ter Stegen was injured and Lewandowski only scored eight league goals — he scored 18 in 19 games before the World Cup in Qatar.

Even if the defensive concessions – they have already conceded a little more than during the whole of last season: 21 against 20 – are much more worrying than the offensive ones, it is surprising that the team needs nine shots to score a goal and ait have not won a match with a difference of more than two goals since September 19, when they beat Antwerp 5-0. A mark of 18 games which refers to the 1962-1963 season. Uncertainty presided over most matches and also favored soloists rather than team play, as happened for example against Athletic where a goal from Marc Guiu, a young striker a few months older young as Vitor Roque, decided. Although he has a goalscorer’s instinct, the Brazilian is also a playing partner, sweeps the offensive front, preferably from the right wing, has resources and can be complementary or alternative to Lewandowski.

Mating

Vitor Roque will provide more competition and enrich an attack with few goals if we take into account that players like Ferran Torres and João Félix have totaled six goals, three each in La Liga. It is by no means known how the Brazilian will adapt to the game and the team as he has not played for any European club and his career has developed in Brazil. “Even if expectations are high, you have to be careful because he is a player in training,” we reiterate at Barça. The transfer price also does not help to have too much patience after verifying that the investment of more than 200 million in footballers like Raphinha (58) Ferran (55), Lewandowski (50) and Koundé (50) n It didn’t work and the hole left by Messi remains open. The performance of the Brazilians – up to 39 with Vitor Roque – is also full of contrasts if we look back at the history of Barcelona.

The pressure will work against a powerful and already international striker

The fan still remembers the escape of Neymar, the signing and sale of Malcom or Arthur, the anonymity of Matheus or the good contribution of Paulinho unlike that of Coutinho, one of the signings which triggered the end of Bartomeu’s presidential period with those of Dembélé and Griezmann. Vitor Roque, currently, has a nickname in accordance with his expectations and his nature card: Tigrinho for being the son of Tigrão. The player has already traveled to the Ciudad Deportiva this Wednesday, upon his arrival in Barcelona, ​​he will join training on Friday as another player and will possibly be presented during the third day, the day before the League match which will be played in Las Palmas. He already knows that he will not only compete with Barça’s rivals but that he will also face Endrick, hired by Madrid, the same club that has already bet and invested in Vinicius and Rodrygo.

Vitor, newly married to a influencerhe will not even have time to celebrate his honeymoon, because Barça’s illness does not wait: “I come to learn, score goals and win”, summarized Vitor Roque, who is currently walking in Barcelona, ​​delighted with life, while the networks The social networks of the Barça club offer images of a roaring Tiger on the field to announce the good news: Vitor Roque.

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