Deco Dismisses Haaland and Gyokeres Speculation, Reaffirms Barcelona’s Faith in Lewandowski

Barcelona Sporting Director, Deco, has rubbished rumors linking the club with Erling Haaland or Viktor Gyokeres, explaining that Lewandowski is enough for the team. Barcelona is said to be closely eyeing the two young forwards in the Spanish media, but speaking in an exclusive interview, Deco was quick to play down the necessity of striking reinforcements at the moment.

Lewandowski will remain the focal point of the attack, with Deco saying that the 36-year-old is in excellent form since scoring 19 goals in 17 games this season. ‘At the moment, we do not want any new ‘nine.’ We have Robert and we are okay because he is doing all that we want. Acquisitions are not an objective because our main concern is this season,” Deco said in an interview with El Mundo Deportivo.

Haaland, who has 15 goals in the Premier League alone in all competitions at the moment, and Gyokeres, who has 23 goals with a Champions League hat-trick against Manchester City, are still on Barca’s list of targets. However, during the interview, Deco insisted that the club’s management only consider the transfers in the future when the time is right. “We know Gyokeres, just as we know others, but it’s not the right moment to discuss these players,” he explained. 

Lewandowski has been in great form since he reunited with his former Bayern Munich coach, Hansi Flick. His goals have taken the Catalan side top of La Liga now with a six-point gap and contributed with two goals in the 4-0 home victory over Real Madrid and three goals in the 3-0 win over Alavés. Deco highlighted the veteran striker’s unique qualities "It is hard to find a forward like Robert nowadays. Perhaps Haaland or someone else is close, but there are few like him, if any. We want Robert to be happy and to keep scoring goals. What we would like to see is that he continues to play for at least one more season.” 

Deco also briefly mentioned the club’s poor attempt at signing Nico Williams in the summer.  Athletic Club winger performed well in Euro 2024 for Spain and got to score in the final match against England. However, Athletic Club was also interested in Williams and the player decided to stay in the team. “We attempted to negotiate but the player wanted to remain, which is okay by us. Life goes on. We focused on Dani Olmo and we are happy he joined us,” Deco added. 

For fans interested in watching Barcelona play their stunning football, 1BoxOffice offers cheap FC Barcelona tickets. Buy FC Barcelona tickets now for the best prices and watch FC Barcelona live from the stadium!