Boca Juniors have made an offer to defender Valentin Barco to renew his deal and increase his release clause, in an attempt to keep him away from Brighton and Hove Albion.
That’s according to vice-president Juan Román Riquelme, who has confirmed the club’s plans for the highly rated player to D Sports Radio, relayed by Soy Xeneize.
Barco was the subject of interest from Brighton and Manchester City throughout the summer transfer window, with both clubs making bids and seeing them rejected by Boca Juniors.
The Seagulls interest came from their continued efforts to scoop up every emerging South American talent they can, with a bid rejected and them told they need to match the player’s release clause.
It seems the Argentine club have no intention of letting Barco go to Brighton without a fight, though, and have now offered him a new deal to try and convince him to stay.
“As with all the boys, we have intentions of extending Barco’s contract,” Riquelme is quoted as saying.
“We wanted to renew for four years, and his representative wanted one year. We will see if he now agrees to renew for longer so that he continues to grow and learn.”
Soy Xeneize follow those comments up and say that a four-year extension is ‘surely not possible’ given the interest in the player and the reality is the Argentine club want him to sign that deal but extend his release clause to $20m.
The idea, it seems, is to protect themselves but offer up a release clause they’re happy with if Barco is to leave.
Brighton, then, may want to move quickly and try to get Barco sooner rather than later before he accepts a new deal, and they end up having to pay much more to get him.
