22-year-old full-back emerges as Marcos Alonso’s alternative for Barcelona | OneFootball

It’s pretty much understood that the one position Barcelona are ready to invest heavily in is the left-back spot. With Jordi Alba being the only reliable option, several names such as Jose Gaya, Javi Galan and Marcos Alonso have made the list.

Portuguese news outlet A Bola (via SPORT), however, has come up with a new story that Sporting Lisbon’s 22-year-old full-back Goncalo Costa has now emerged as a strong alternative.

The aforementioned publication says Costa has decided to bid farewell to Sporting, a club which he joined at the tender age of nine.

He played 23 games for the B team last season and managed to score three goals in a total of 1,452 minutes of playing minutes.

Throughout his Sporting career, the 22-year-old full-back went through all levels of training and was playing for the U-23 team for the last two seasons. While he failed to make a senior appearance, he did train with the first-team squad with Ruben Amorim.

As such, for Barcelona, Goncalo Costa is only an alternative to the aforementioned names, of which a certain Marcos Alonso still remains a top priority.

The left-back’s current Chelsea contract runs until 2023, but his personal wish is to return to La Liga this summer. He is hoping that Chelsea would sanction a transfer without much of a hustle, but even he understands that it will come at a set price for Barça.

It’s still unclear whether or not Chelsea will issue ‘the letter of freedom’ to their Spanish left-back, but if they do, there are claims that they might want Alejandro Balde in return.

Sources have it that Chelsea have already made contact with Balde’s entourage while pressing that they can afford to give him regular first-team minutes, something that is extremely difficult at Barcelona.

As of today, while Barcelona are negotiating for Alonso, Chelsea have brought up Balde’s name as part of the exchange and it’s now upto the Blaugrana to return with a counter offer.