Barcelona will have 15 players at the World Cup this summer, but the club\u2019s recruitment team will also be watching a group of possible additions competing in Qatar. The club has already completed the signing of Anthony Gordon from Newcastle United and remains intent on strengthening defence, midfield and the forward line.<\/p>\n
Jo\u00e3o Cancelo spent the second half of last season on loan at Barcelona from Al Hilal and is determined to make the move permanent. The versatile fullback will represent Portugal this summer and will be eager to impress to enhance his value in negotiations.<\/p>\n
Marc Cucurella appears increasingly likely to leave Chelsea and has emerged as a contender for Spain\u2019s left back position. Alejandro Grimaldo, Spain\u2019s understudy in that role, is thought to be interested in a return to La Liga from Bayer Leverkusen, and Barcelona have been linked with him.<\/p>\n
Two central defenders under observation will wear the Croatia shirt. Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol has been linked with a Spanish move this summer, with Real Madrid leading the race if he does not sign a new contract at Manchester City. Barcelona remain interested if the finances are right. Luka Vu\u0161kovi\u0107 could be an alternative after a strong loan at Hamburg, and his parent club Tottenham Hotspur might be forced to sell following a difficult season.<\/p>\n
Midfield interest centres on Bernardo Silva, available on a free transfer after his exit from Manchester City. Barcelona are described as being in the driver\u2019s seat for any potential deal, which would likely be discussed after Portugal\u2019s World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n
On the wings, Barcelona have already added Gordon but remain linked with Bradley Barcola of Paris Saint-Germain, despite his second successive Champions League win with the French club. Up front, Marcus Rashford, who spent last season on loan from Manchester United, remains of interest. Barcelona will not trigger the permanent buy option but could open negotiations with Manchester United at a lower price; Rashford would also need to reduce his wages.<\/p>\n
Juli\u00e1n Alvarez is described as the club\u2019s priority target this summer, though talks with Atl\u00e9tico Madrid are expected to be awkward and expensive. Real Madrid saw their $173 million bid for the Argentina international rejected. For now, Alvarez will focus on securing a second World Cup title.<\/p>\n
Group stage matches for each player are listed in the tournament schedules and will form key opportunities for Barcelona to assess potential signings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ten players Barcelona will track at the 2026 World Cup as the club looks to strengthen the squad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,961],"tags":[506,988,673],"class_list":["post-14271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-international","tag-anthony-gordon","tag-bernardo-silva","tag-bradley-barcola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}