Barcelona sporting director Robert Fernandez has been working hard to deliver Ernesto Valverde a new central defender and the La Liga giants are heavily interested in teenagers Matthijs de Ligt and Dayot Upamecano, claims Mundo Deportivo.
Valverde made signing a new centre-back a priority upon his arrival at the start of the summer but those plans were shelved following Neymar’s shock departure to Paris Saint-Germain at the start of August.
Nevertheless, Fernandez has been scouring Europe for a new defender capable of handling the pressures that come with representing Barcelona and believes he has identified two possible targets in Ajax’s De Ligt and RB Leipzig’s Upamecano.
Barcelona failed to replace Jeremy Mathieu over the summer and are expected to lose Javier Mascherano at the end of the current campaign, with a long-term replacement needed to partner Samuel Umtiti.
Despite the fact Barcelona are set to sign Palmeiras centre-back Yerry Mina in January, Valverde’s side are still interested in snapping up one of De Ligt and Upamecano in the winter transfer window.
De Ligt, 18, broke onto the scene for Ajax midway through last season and was hugely impressive in their Europa League final defeat to Manchester United last season, completely nullifying Marcus Rashford in attack.
Upamecano, however, has made a scintillating start to the league season with Leipzig. Only Ignacio Camacho (4.3) and Abdou Diallo (3.9) average more interceptions per game than the 18-year-old (3.3) in the Bundesliga this season.
