Barcelona eyeing Brazil’s sensational teenage striker | OneFootball

Brazil appears to have an endless amount of talent coming out of every corner of the country and the newest one is only 17 years old and already on Barcelona’s radar.

His name is Paulinho Henrique Sampaio Filho. You heard it here first.

The wonderkid currently plays as a striker for Vasco da Gama. He recently became the youngest player ever to score for the Rio de Janeiro side in the Brasileirão, breaking the record set by none other than Philippe Coutinho.

Last season he became such a sensation that he was hailed as one of the revelations of Brazilian football ahead of other promising stars such as Arthur Melo and Vinícius Júnior.

Arthur has already signed with Barcelona and is expected to join the club next season, while Vinícius reached a deal with Real Madrid last year, but is still on loan at Flamengo.

Paulinho also shone with Brazil’s U-17 national team. He helped the young Canarinha win the South American championship and to reach a respectable third place at the U-17 World Cup.

There is just one obstacle standing in Paulinho’s way. The Catalan club already have three non-EU players in the squad and, in fact, are still determining whether or not to send Yerry Mina out on loan to make room for Arthur.

Even if Paulinho signed with the Camp Nou side, it’s very unlikely that Paulinho will play with the first team until at least 2019. Other options may be to play on loan at another club until then or play with Barcelona ‘B’ in Spain’s second division.

According to Sport, Paulinho’s release clause is set at €30 million – that is an amount that more teams in Europe would be willing to pay for the rising star if a deal with Barça cannot be reached.