Barcelona and Manchester City set to compete for 20-year-old defensive talent | OneFootball

Apart from entering the African market to discover young players, FC Barcelona are also keeping a close eye on the Austrian footballing scenes as it is known for creating new talents.

In recent years, top players like Erling Haaland, Sadio Mane, Dominik Szoboszlai, Karim Adeyemi, and Naby Keita, among others, emerged from RB Salzburg in Austria and it seems like another talent coming through the club has caught Barcelona’s eye.

Barcelona interested in Samson Baidoo

Indeed, according to reports relayed by SPORT, Barcelona are monitoring RB Salzburg’s 20-year-old defensive prodigy Samson Baidoo.

The Catalan giants are looking to strengthen their defence for the future and Baidoo, better known as ‘Sammy’, has caught their attention.

Baidoo has made great progress from the youth ranks to the senior setup, establishing himself in the first team in his first season.

Standing at 1.9m tall, Baidoo is a towering centre-back with good ball control. The 20-year-old has played the full ninety minutes in nine of Salzburg’s ten matches this season.

Samson Baidoo (R) attracting heavy interest. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Manchester City also keen

As per the report, Barcelona are not the only club interested in Baidoo as Premier League champions Manchester City are also looking at the youngster.

Indeed, Pep Guardiola’s side are said to have been tracking the Austrian centre-half for 18 months now, with their club scouts having his name at the top of their list.

Meanwhile, Tottenham and Newcastle are also understood to be interested in the 20-year-old while Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan also have the youngster on their radars.

Baidoo, who has one cap for the Austrian national team, has a contract with RB Salzburg that runs until 2027. While his market value stands at €8 million, his transfer will likely cost a much bigger sum.

Barcelona have options in the centre-back department but Inigo Martinez’s contract runs out in 2025, although there is an option to extend it. There is the possibility that Ronald Araujo could be sold if he does not sign a renewal.

So, it will be interesting to see if this interest in Baidoo leads to something substantial, although Barça seem to be focused on Jonathan Tah as their centre-back reinforcement for 2025.