‘It was evil’ – Barcelona chief launches stern defence of on-loan Vitor Roque | OneFootball

Barcelona sporting director Deco has this week moved to launch an unwavering defence of on-loan Blaugrana talent Vitor Roque.

This comes after the Brazilian was targeted from all angles with completely over the top criticism across his first six months at the club.

Roque of course joined Barcelona back in January, making the leap from his home country of Brazil.

Despite arriving with lofty expectations on his young shoulders, however, things did not quite work out for the 18-year-old last season.

After struggling badly for game-time under the watch of Xavi, and with his confidence at an evident low, Roque was in turn farmed out on loan, joining Real Betis in a deal featuring an option to buy.

The striker has since gone on to enjoy an altogether more productive time of things to date in Heliopolis, having found the net a respectable five times across all competitions.

Speaking during an interview with Mundo Deportivo on Wednesday, the name of Barcelona’s young attacker was, in turn, put to sporting director Deco.

And the Blaugrana chief made use of the opportunity to both praise Roque, and reveal his disbelief with the level of criticism aimed in the direction of the Brazilian upon his arrival:

”He’s doing well, he’s scoring goals. Since I’ve known Barça, I can’t remember such a bad attack on a young player, like it came from outside, like with Vitor Roque. Such bad and ugly criticism. I don’t know where it came from, I don’t know if it’s an attack on me or on the club, but I don’t think there was such a strong and bad personal attack on an 18-year-old kid. I mean evil, he was attacked very strongly, without any sense, without any reason. We’re now seeing with Endrick a normal process of an 18-19-year-old player who comes to Madrid going through a normal process. Vitor Roque has been hurt a lot and it’s been very hard for me to see him suffer and see how he’s come out, how he’s had a bad time. That’s football. I’m 47 years old and I’m not used to certain things either… He had a very bad time. What I feel bad about is that I think the attacks on Vitor were not aimed at him and I didn’t like it. The poor kid wasn’t to blame for anything, for the fact that we signed him, for the fact that whoever the sporting director, the coach or the president is doesn’t like him… He has suffered a lot. I am happy for him that he is playing for Betis and is scoring goals and enjoying himself again. He is a young man who has a lot of potential and is going to grow but I don’t remember an attack like that.”

Conor Laird – GSFN