Barcelona plan to continue shopping in South American country after closing defender deal | OneFootball

In the last 24 hours, Barcelona have reached an agreement to sign versatile left-sided player Josue Caicedo. The 18-year-old, who has already made eight first team appearances for LDU Quito, will join Barca Atletic on loan for the 2026-27 season, while the deal will also give the Catalans the option to sign him for €2.5m.

Over the last 12-18 months, there has been a clear shift in Barcelona’s transfer policy under sporting director Deco. The idea has been to sign highly-rated teenagers to play in the youth categories, with the idea being for them to develop into first team ready players in the next 2-3 years.

In January, Juwensley Onstein joined on a permanent deal, while Egyptian striker Hamza Abdelkarim arrived on loan – although he will also join Barcelona permanently in the coming days after his buy option was triggered by the Catalan side.

Barcelona have high hopes for Onstein, Abdelkarim and Caicedo, and all three will have pathways to the first team if they perform at the highest level. It’s expected that the latter will not be the last Ecuadorian player to have this opportunity within La Masia, with MD reporting that Deco has plans to keep exploiting the market in the South American nation.

Ecuadorian talent is on the rise across Europe

Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Over the last five years, Ecuador has become a hot spot for talent. The likes of Moises Caicedo (Chelsea), William Pacho (Paris Saint-Germain), Piero Hincapie (Arsenal) and Joel Ordonez (Club Brugge) have made the move to Europe seamlessly, and Barcelona will hope that their own Caicedo will be the first of many Ecuadorians to make a similar jump in Catalonia.

It’ll be interesting to see how Caicedo gets on at Barcelona, but if he performs well for Barca Atletic, there is every chance he makes the step up to the first team at some stage over the next 12 months.