The rest of the Premier League is Brenda from Bristol right now. “You’re joking! Not another one! Oh for God sake!” Yes, Brighton have secured the signing of another South American wonderkid with the capture of Valentin Barco for £7.8 million.
Heralded as one of the brightest young prospects in Argentina, the 19-year-old joins from Boca Juniors for whom he has played 35 times.
A release clause in his contract has allowed the Albion to sign him for what is a heavily knocked down fee. Boca fans are livid by the situation, believing Barco to be worth twice the amount Brighton have paid.
Barco signed the contract with the release clause before he broke into the senior side at the start of 2023. When Boca realised the talent they had on their hands, they could have negotiated a new deal at any point in the past 12 months with a better release clause to reflect Barco’s ability.
Instead, they only tried to pressure Barco into penning a new contract in recent months, when it became known that Manchester City and Brighton were amongst a host of clubs ready and waiting to take advantage of the situation.
Barco by that point seemed to have his eyes firmly fixed on a move to the Albion, no doubt inspired by the career progression of Alexis Mac Allister, Moises Caicedo, Julio Enciso and Facundo Buonanotte after swapping South America for Sussex.
What followed was a game of cat-and-mouse. Brighton offered £7.1 million plus a 10 percent sell-on clause. If Barco goes onto join Chelsea in three years time for £200 million as predicted, said clause would net Boca an additional £20 million.
Boca though were having none of it and instead resolved to “put every obstacle possible” in the way of the player agreeing a deal with Brighton according to reports in Argentina. Quite what those obstacles might have been is something of a mystery.
There certainly seemed no prospect of Boca getting one over the Seagulls on this occasion, as they had when making Brighton pay to get their own player after the Albion forgot to put a release clause in the deal which took Mac Allister on loan to La Bombonera in June 2019.
To sign Barco, all Brighton had to do was bid £7.8 million and there was nothing Boca could do about it. Barco has subsequently signed a contract through to 2028.
What do we know of Barco as a player? Well, if Football Manager is your gauge, he goes onto become world class by the age of 20 in the latest version of the game.
In the real world (wait, Football Manager isn’t real?), Barco was signed to his local team Sportivo Las Parejas at the age of three. Yes, three.
By nine, he had joined the academy of Boca. He made his senior debut at 16-years-old and has one career goal and four assists to his name so far.
Most reports linking Valentin Barco to Brighton have listed him as a left back, leading many Albion fans to assume he will ease the burden on Pervis Estupinan in a position where the Albion look short of options.
But Barco has actually played the majority of his career games to date as a left winger. His dribbling ability and repertoire of tricks made him one of the standout players as Boca advanced all the way to the final of the Copa Libertadores in 2023.
What makes Barco special is the way he combines the fleet footedness of an out-and-out winger with the reading of the game and tackle success rate of a full back.
This is what has led to him not only being labelled a left back – but a player with the potential to be the greatest full back Argentina has produced.
“Argentina are one of world football’s historical powerhouses. They have a long list of elite talent in every position, save one: full-back,” reads an article from September on Scouted Notebook.
“But now, into the void of world-class Argentinian full-backs steps 19-year-old Valentín Barco.” High praise indeed – and no wonder Pep Guardiola so wanted Barco to move to the treble winners.
Barco may end up playing under Guardiola at City in the not-so-distant future. Should he live up to his potential, then the best and richest clubs in the world will be throwing obscene amounts of cash at the Albion to sign him within a few years.
(Any move to City is of course conditional on Abu Dhabi intimidating and lawyering their way out of those 115 FFP charges.)
For now though, the responsibility of developing another world class talent falls to Roberto De Zerbi. As well as playing full back, wing back or left wing, it would not be a surprise if De Zerbi were to try Barco in central midfield at some point.
Guardiola was said to have viewed Barco as similar to Oleksandr Zinchenko, a left back capable of inverting into midfielder. De Zerbi will undoubtedly have noted Barco easily recovers possession in a manner reminiscent of Caicedo.
As for weakness, Barco is only 5’6. There will be question marks over whether he is physically ready for the Premier League yet, or if he will require a similar period of adjustment to Enciso, Caicedo and Buonanotte.
To this end, Andy Naylor has suggested that Barco could head straight out on loan this January. Many Albion fans were up in arms at the prospect.
But it would get five more months of first team football under Barco’s belt rather than playing reserve to Estupinan at left back or Simon Adingra and Ansu Fati on the wing, before becoming a part of the Albion first team squad next summer.
Barco also averages a yellow card every 299 minutes, or three-and-a-bit games. His discipline will need to improve playing for a Brighton side who end up on the wrong end of an unbalance amount of poor refereeing decisions as it is.
There is clearly lot plenty to be excited about. Brighton have a rich history when it comes to ginger-haired full backs and if Valentin Barco turns out to be half as good as predecessors like Kerry Mayo and Andy Whing, the Albion will have a real prospect on their hands.
