Barcelona are likely to sign someone to occupy the left-wing spot this summer, but there is little clarity on who or how much they want to spend. Three months ago it looked to be a given that the Catalan giants would activate their €30m buy option on Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford, but that looks increasingly unlikely as time goes on.
The Blaugrana are now evaluating alternatives to Rashford, considering the price tag and wages to be too high for a player that is not necessarily a starter. Younger options such as Victor Munoz, Ez Abde, Jan Virgili and Andreas Schjelderup are all on Barcelona’s radar seemingly.
In an ideal world for Barcelona, salary limit considerations would be out the transfer window, and they would be free to pursue an all-star forward line. If that were the case, Sport say that Deco’s first port of call would be RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande. They explain that Barcelona met with the former Leganes player’s agents less than a month ago to enquire about the conditions of a potential move. However the Bundesliga side will not allow him to leave for less than €100m this summer, a figure out of the question for Barcelona.
🚨 FC Barcelona and Alessandro Bastoni are advancing on a contract that would be for the next five seasons, until 2031. He will adapt to fit his salary at the level of financial 'fair play' and is willing to help the negotiations between the two clubs if necessary. Everything now…
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) April 21, 2026
It is noted that Diomande was without doubt Deco’s preferred option for the position, if Rashford were to leave, and Raphinha were to decide to accept a major offer from Saudi Arabia. Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have all been linked with Diomande, with the latter seeing him as a Mohamed Salah replacement.
Diomande would be a nod to a previous strategy of Deco, who appears keen to balance Barcelona’s attack, much of which has flowed through Lamine Yamal this season. While Raphinha stretches teams vertically, Barcelona have also pursued Luis Diaz and Nico Williams, left-wingers that would hold their width more, and give defences motives to accumulate less players on Lamine Yamal’s side.
