Barcelona have overtaken Liverpool and Bayern Munich in the race to sign Anthony Gordon.
The forward travelled to Spain on Thursday and the La Liga winners should soon make his signing official.
Two days ago, Sport Witness relayed news of Barcelona advancing as Liverpool made a strong push to sign him.
This surfaced days after Bayern Munich sporting director Max Eberl confirmed talks to sign the Newcastle United player.
Both the Reds and the Bundesliga winners will miss out on the England international to Barcelona.
How Liverpool and Bayern lost to Barcelona
Friday’s edition of Mundo Deportivo gives an insight into the work done by Barca sporting director Deco.
Over the past few weeks, the Spanish media covered the director’s two trips to the UK to hold talks for Chelsea’s João Pedro. He has close ties with the Brazilian’s agent and doesn’t need to travel to hold talks with them.
He travelled to London to expedite the Anthony Gordon operation, and the last trip was to beat Liverpool, who were pushing hard to sign him.
Gordon spent five years at the Reds’ academy and left them for Everton in 2012. The newspaper state Arne Slot’s ‘were playing the sentimental card’ to convince him to return to the club.
However, Barcelona made concrete advances, beating Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
The 25-year-old’s agents were surprised when Deco first made approach as they thought Hansi Flick’s side make Marcus Rashford’s loan stay permanent.
Last summer, Manchester United let Rashford leave on loan with a €30m purchase clause and Barca are now refusing to activate it.
After finding out about the Camp Nou side’s interest, Gordon favoured them over other two suitors.
This way, Deco ‘orchestrated a lightning-fast signing’ and avoided a potential bidding war with Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
Blow for Liverpool
The Reds have to improve their attack following Mohamed Salah’s exit and Hugo Ekitiké’s long-term absence due to an injury suffered in April.
Anthony Gordon mainly operates on the left wing and can also play up front and on the right wing.
He also has the experience of playing in the Premier League, making him a good option for Liverpool. However, the Reds have suffered a blow as Barcelona will soon make the attacker’s signing official.