Ajax is on the verge of securing a promising Barcelona youth midfielder on a free transfer, bolstering their squad.
According to Voetbal International, the young midfielder, whose contract is running down, has hinted on social media that he is nearing his time with the Catalan club.
While Barcelona recently invested time and energy in renewing contracts for several academy youth prospects who they feel can play for the first team, this young player looks set to leave, which is indicative of the challenge European clubs are having in retaining their top talent.
The player is Eloi Gomez, a 16-year-old midfielder born in 2009, who came to Barcelona in 2017 from Gimnastic Manresa.
Gomez has since impressed with Barcelona’s youth programs with his intelligent play and maturity on the pitch, he has even been capped for Spain’s U-16 team twice, playing in friendly matches.
Ajax sees Gomez as an obvious replacement for Abdellah Ouazane, who has recently signed with Real Madrid.
The Dutch club has monitored Gomez’s development and would like to offer him whatever approach to his development in Eredivisie and integrate him into their youth system.
For Gomez, a transfer to Ajax would mark a potentially critical learning opportunity and development path in a system that has produced successive stars in its youth system.
For Barcelona, the prospect of losing Gomez reinforces the challenge of retaining every player with talent and potential in La Masia while they are being tracked by some of Europe’s top clubs.
If completed, Gomez will have the opportunity to continue his football career in Amsterdam, and given Ajax’s success with previous stars who have left the youth programme, Gomez may have every opportunity to develop from raw talent into an established player.
Whatever Barcelona may lose, Ajax may very well gain with Gomez’s opportunity to prove himself on a new stage.
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