"Vinicius would have joined Barcelona, but his agent betrayed us"

The figure of Andre Cury is as diffuse as important in Brazilian football. At the beginning of last year, he was spoken of as the right-hand man of Vitor Roque's agent, Ehler Pessoa. Now, he is directly labelled as the agent of 'Tigrinho'. In an interview with the programme 'Tu diràs', on 'RAC1', he revealed the details of the deal to bring him to Barcelona and recalled how Vinicius would have followed the same path if he hadn't changed his mind.

"At the moment, there are several clubs who would be willing to sign Vitor Roque for 50 million. Barca have only paid 10 million, so it would be a great deal. With three operations like this, they would solve their financial problems. Barca pays 5 million every six months until it reaches 31 million. In order to fulfil all the add-ons, Vitor would have to be a starter. If he is a starter at Barca at the age of 20, his price would be 200 million for sure," he said.

"The add-ons? One million for the Ballon d'Or and two or three for being in FIFA's top three. The rest is for starting half the games," he added. "Vitor is very happy with the opportunity to defend the Barca shirt. He is very good physically and very strong mentally, waiting for the opportunity to show it on the pitch. Xavi likes him a lot and respects his work. He also understands the situation, but I think that, in some games, he could have played a few more minutes. He's not going to go out on loan", he added.

"Vitor Roque is a complete player, as players like Romario and Rivaldo have said. The position of No. 9 at Barca is very well filled. Barca don't have to worry about Endrick, my opinion is that they have to think about signing 'Messinho' because he would give the 'Cules' a lot of joy alongside Vitor. I'm backing him because he's the new Neymar," he added, already focused on possible future operations for Barcelona.

On the subject of young Brazilian signings at Real Madrid, the 'Cules' eternal rivals, he gave a blunt assessment: "They went crazy and paid very large sums for Rodrygo and Vinicius. Moreover, with Vinicius, we were betrayed by his agent. He would have come to Barça because he is 'Cule". He was also in favour of Xavi Hernandez staying on if he pulls off a surprise and wins the Champions League.

"If we win the Champions League, Xavi is not leaving. We are going to let things happen. Xavi knows the club, he's a great coach and the squad has had a lot of injuries. If the club had been financially strong, Vitor would have arrived in July, for example. There are five games to get to Wembley and to be able to be champions", he argued in this sense. However, the coach has already repeated several times that nothing will change his mind.

 

March 24, 2024