A new signing made by FC Barcelona is scheduled to arrive in the Catalan capital in the coming days as reported by outlets including SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
According to The Athletic, also citing anonymous sources, the player in question will join his new club this week after waiting 10 months to do so.
What is public knowledge is that the purchase of Ibrahim Diarra from CPF Africa Foot has already been completed.
When Barca’s latest financial report was presented a few weeks ago, it showed the amounts of $1.6 million (€1.5 million) and $200,000 (€190,000) to be paid to Africa Foot and Diarra in the outstanding debts section.
Buying Diarra sees Barca implementing a new transfer strategy. It involves the Blaugrana heading directly to Africa to unearth talents there, as opposed to waiting until another European rival has done so and then buying established players for premiums when they’ve already started to show promise on the Old Continent or have reached their peaks.
This suits cash-strapped Barca, who could make a killing in buying a potential prodigy and then overseeing his development either to the first team or being sold on for a profit to another club.
We recently saw this with Mika Faye, who Barca beat the likes of Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund to signing in summer 2023 for less than $2 million.
A year later, Faye was shipped out to Rennes for $10.9 million (€10.3 million). If he blossoms in France, however, his former employers can buy Faye back for €25 million and also retains 30% of a future sale of the defender.
Diarra is a different kind of player in that he is a left footed right winger who can also operate as an attacking midfielder.
He would do well to dislodge the likes of fellow teenager Lamine Yamal from the right wing, or attacking midfielders such as Dani Olmo and Pedri from their berths.
But as already seen this week, manager Hansi Flick is open to appointing replacements for the injured Lamine when he is in need of a rest or feels muscle discomfort, while Olmo has recently been sidelined himself and can’t be rushed into playing everything.
Diarra will be able to earn his first official minutes in a Barca shirt from January onwards, and will most likely join Barca Atletic, as Faye did, with a view to trying to break Flick’s senior squad.
