Barcelona in talks to sign leading Julian Alvarez alternative | OneFootball

Barcelona are looking to look beyond Julian Alvarez in their efforts to sign a new striker during the summer transfer window. The Argentina international is still their leading target, but with Atletico Madrid continuing to insist that they will not sell to a direct rivals, the Catalans are starting to lose hope that an agreement can be reached.

In the last few weeks, Barcelona have started to put more focus on alternative striker targets. They have already been turned down by Harry Kane, but they could be about to have more luck with Eli Junior Kroupi, who has emerged as their preferred candidate in the event that Atleti do not relax their stance on Alvarez.

According to Fabrizio Romano, Barcelona have opened official talks with Kroupi’s representatives, as they seek to find out the situation with the Bournemouth striker, who has also attracted interest from the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur over the course of the summer transfer window.

Bournemouth do not want to sell Kroupi this summer

The problem for Barcelona is that Bournemouth’s stance on Kroupi is similar to have of Atleti’s with Alvarez. The Premier League side have no intention of selling their prized asset this summer, and this has been communicated to the Catalan club via the 20-year-old’s representatives.

Nevertheless, there is more chance that Bournemouth relax their stance, especially in Barcelona’s case as they are not a direct rival of the Premier League club. Even so, it would likely take an offer in the region of €100m in order for a deal to be done, and while the Catalans are waiting to pay that for Alvarez, they may not do so for a player that only has one season of top-level football under his belt.

It remains to be seen how the situation with Kroupi develops, but Barcelona are making it known that they are interested in signing him if the Alvarez operation fails.