The competition is fierce for one of Africa’s most exciting young midfielders, who is being tracked by Barcelona.
The 16-year-old has emerged as one of the most exciting talents from the continent and is wowing scouts with his technique, vision, and maturity.
Generally, academy graduates take time to make it to the first team, but this particular player seems to have the chance to fast-track that process.
Barcelona and Manchester City have been linked strongly, but they will face stiff competition from English Premier League rivals, according to TBR Football.
The Spaniards may have an edge thanks to their ties to a football academy in Africa, which could be helpful in negotiations with a player whom they want to attract, and English clubs are willing to fight for his signature for a player with huge potential.
The player in question is Aboubacar Maiga, the Ivorian wonderkid currently being chased around Europe.
Chelsea and Manchester United have also entered the race, both looking to rejuvenate their midfields with young legs in the middle.
Maiga, who can either operate as a deep-lying playmaker or cover box-to-box, is a great speculation as a long-term investment.
The club and importance of Barcelona’s development pathway must be encouraging, but there are strong pulls for players heading to the Premier League.
Both Chelsea and United have decent facilities that nurture their education from the youth academy pathways through to senior level, with Aboubacar perhaps following the path of some of Barcelona equivalence emerging talent from an academy.
However, persuading him to forego Cataluña for England will be an immense challenge – especially given Barcelona will most likely still have a stake in his development network.
Barcelona may be limited in what they can spend in the transfer market due to financial restraints, but they follow a model of sustained squad building, which may work in their interest.
For Maiga, the balance will be between development opportunities rather than first-team emergence.
This certainly seems like a summer transfer that may develop into one of the most enthralling stories of this window – it will be fascinating to see how this progresses.
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