Wednesday’s edition of Catalan newspaper Sport has an article which pretty much demands Brazil manager Diniz select Vitor Roque for the next international break.
The 18-year-old currently plays for Athletico Paranaense but in July of this year, Barcelona announced they’ve agreed a deal to sign him. He’s expected to arrive physically next summer, although the January window hasn’t been ruled out.
In good goalscoring form, there’s Catalan anger that the youngster wasn’t picked for the last break… potentially ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s Richarlison.
Indeed, Sport go for the jugular with Richarlison and their comments are distasteful to say the least.
About the Tottenham player, Sport state: ‘Richarlison, who started both games, came out crying in the first, as a result of frustration; and, in the second, he said in a mixed zone that he would go seek psychological help to work on his anxiety. He stated that he had off-field problems (which sounded like an alibi and a public distraction due to his poor performance).’
That’s quite a nasty way of framing things and seems to distort the truth to fit the Barcelona agenda.
Richarlison has 20 goals and eight assists in 46 matches for Brazil, a very good return on the international level. He hasn’t scored in his last five matches for Brazil, but before that he was flying and he was unlucky in the last match when VAR took an age to rule out a goal for offside.
The Tottenham player returned to the scoresheet for Tottenham at the weekend, with a crucial late performance to help Spurs turn the game around against Sheffield United.
Sport say Deco, Barcelona’s football director, ‘was not amused’ by Diniz’s decision to omit Vitor Roque from his last squad. That requires quite some level of cheek, given Deco, born in Brazil, decided to represent Portugal at international level.
