Barcelona reportedly keen on Fluminense’s André

André Trindade is reportedly attracting interest from FC Barcelona. The Fluminense midfielder, who will play for the Brazilian side in the Club World Cup final against Manchester City, is said to be liked by many clubs across Europe, with the current LaLiga title holders one of them.

The 22-year-old is one of the options that Deco sees as a potential player to fill the hold in the blaugrana midfield, according to Barcelona-based newspaper, SPORT. The media outlet says that various Premier League clubs are also keeping a close eye on the player, with Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool said to have tried for a deal last summer.

‘Barcelona and Madrid are big, but I would choose Barcelona’

Spanish news outlet Mundo Deportivo also reported that Fluminense and Barcelona have a very good relationship with one another and André himself even spoke about Barcelona after Flu’s win over Al Ahly in the Club World Cup semi-final, saying that “Barcelona and Real Madrid are big clubs, but I would choose Barcelona.”

The club are looking for a midfielder this January after the injury to Gavi, with Laporta saying that “if we can improve our salary limit, our idea is to add another midfielder that can compensate for Gavi’s injury” before manager Xavi later added that “we need a midfielder, but finding someone in the market who is like Gavi is tough. We all work together, with Laporta and Gavi to improve the squad”.

Barcelona’s squad problems were highlighted when Xavi started with 8 youth team players on the pitch in their mid-season friendly against Club América in Dallas, which the Spanish side lost 2-3.

How much would Fluminense sell André for?

The report says that Fluminense’s valuation of the player sits at €30 million ($33m), and manager Fernando Diniz even said that “André's departure is imminent, and they are two players who were trained at Fluminense and who have had very good times here at the club. Apart from them, we have other possibilities, but I think they’re players I’m counting on a lot for next year.”

The links with André and Europe have been going on for over a year, with Fluminense’s president saying back in 2022 that “We are not going to deceive anyone, we have to make sales, but I can say that it will not be André. We are not going to sell André in the middle of the year. We even negotiated his renewal. Angioni, our director of football, is negotiating with his representatives. We have no proposals, no inquiries for any player. But the player who can be sold will not be André.”