La Liga giants Barcelona’s imminent signing of Gabriel Jesus from Premier League champions Arsenal can be considered a hugely positive development for another member of the club’s summer recruitment drive.
That’s according to Mundo Deportivo, who highlight Dominik Livaković as the player in question.
Goalkeeper Livaković was of course brought to Catalunya’s capital earlier this month. Ahead of the expiration of his contract terms with Turkish heavyweights Fenerbahçe, the 31-year-old was earmarked as something of a market opportunity by the transfer team at the Spotify Camp Nou.
Deco and co, in turn, thrashed out a cut-price agreement to bring Livaković in on a permanent basis. Initially, the expectation was that the Croatian would be farmed out on loan, before returning to replace Wojciech Szczęsny as Joan García’s backup next summer.
But as confirmed this weekend, this will in fact not prove to be the case. Instead, as per a report from MD:
‘Now that the number ‘9’ vacancy has been filled with the ‘low-cost’ signing of Gabriel Jesus for around 10 million euros, there is no longer any doubt that Livakovic will be registered by Barça before Tuesday to be Joan Garcia’s backup goalkeeper.’
Had Barca instead succeeded in their efforts to land first-choice striker target Julián Alvarez, Livaković’s registration for the season ahead would likely not have been possible.
Conor Laird – GSFN
