Gianluca Prestianni is gathering a lot of attention with his performances for Velez Sarsfield in Argentina. Just 17 years of age, the young forward has a host of top European clubs vying for his signing, with Barcelona understood to be one among them.
Indeed, according to SPORT, Barcelona had already started the process to sign Prestianni back in 2021, but the move had fallen through. However, the Catalans still have the teenage sensation very much on their radar.
As per the report, former technical secretary Ramon Planes, who was responsible for the signings of Pedri and Ronald Araujo, wanted to rope in Prestianni at Barcelona even before the youngster had made his first-team debut at Velez Sarsfield.
To that end, Planes had already initiated contacts with Prestianni’s environment in 2021 and things had been set in motion. However, soon after that, the former had to step down from his post at Barça.
Following that, the operation fell through, partly because of the club’s financial situation at the time as well. Since then, Prestianni has gone on to make his first-team debut for Velez and is starting to build a reputation as one of the finest young talents in Argentina.
So far in his senior career, the 17-year-old has played 12 matches, scoring and assisting one goal apiece.
There had been reports in January earlier this year that Barcelona were again close to signing Prestianni, but no move materialised.
The teenage wonderkid has a contract with Velez that runs until December 2024 and is believed to have a release clause worth around €10 million. The striker will turn 18 in January next year and could leave Argentina for Europe then.
Barcelona, for their part, are still following his progress closely and it will be interesting to see if they decide to re-establish contacts and make use of the past discussions with his entourage to lure him to Catalonia.
