Barcelona’s No. 9 Hunt: Tresoldi Emerges as Plan B

Barcelona will not close this transfer window without a new centre-forward. Inside the club, that message is crystal clear. The conviction is just as strong over who they want: Julián Álvarez remains the chosen one, the striker Hansi Flick and Deco continue to treat as non‑negotiable Plan A.

But the clock is ticking, and reality is forcing the sporting department to widen the lens.

Tresoldi moves up the list

From England, via SPORT, comes the latest name pushed into the conversation: Nicolo Tresoldi. The 21-year-old was the breakout striker in the Belgian league last season and finished as Club Brugge’s top scorer. He is already a Germany U-21 international and widely viewed as one of the sharpest young No. 9s on the market.

Premier League clubs and AS Roma have already knocked on Brugge’s door this summer. None of them has managed to break it open. The Belgian side are holding firm at a price tag of more than €40 million, a figure that has kept Tresoldi where he is for now.

Barcelona, though, have done their homework. The club already hold the full dossier on a possible transfer and have made initial contact with the player’s camp, stopping short of a formal move. Scouts have been working on his profile intensively in recent days, feeding back glowing reports that match what Flick already knows from Germany’s youth setup: Tresoldi has developed well, and his ceiling is high.

A familiar problem for Barça

Barcelona do not need to imagine how Tresoldi would look against them. They have lived it.

Last season, the striker scored in the 3-3 Champions League draw between Club Brugge and Barça, tormenting the Blaugrana back line and underlining exactly why big clubs are circling. Across all competitions, he finished the campaign with 24 goals and several standout displays that turned him from a prospect into a genuine asset.

Club Brugge have shown they are tough negotiators – the Jesse Bisiwu deal with Barcelona was proof of that – but they also understand the limits of their position. If a top‑level club arrives with a serious, structured offer, keeping Tresoldi will be extremely complicated.

A profile that fits – with a warning label

From a purely footballing perspective, Tresoldi ticks many of Barcelona’s boxes for a No. 9.

He links play well, combines sharply with teammates and reads tight spaces with maturity beyond his age. He is particularly effective against deep defensive blocks, exactly the kind of low, compact setups Barça face almost every week in La Liga. Inside the box, he is a clean, reliable finisher.

His weak spot is clear: he is not a dribbler in the classic Barça sense. He does not yet offer that one‑on‑one chaos that can unpick a game on its own. At 21, he is still a work in progress, not a fully polished star. That is where the risk lies. The fee will be high, the room for development is big, but the guarantee is not.

For a club juggling finances as carefully as Barcelona, that calculation matters.

Álvarez or Plan B?

Inside the sporting department, one message keeps repeating: Julián Álvarez is still the target. He remains the priority for Flick and Deco, the forward around whom they would like to build the next phase of the attack.

Yet they also know transfer windows rarely follow the ideal script. If the Álvarez operation stalls or collapses, Barça cannot be caught flat‑footed. That is why a Plan B is being quietly assembled, with Tresoldi one of the leading names on that secondary list.

For now, Barcelona wait. The conviction around Álvarez holds, but the market is moving, the days are slipping away, and the club’s need for a No. 9 will not disappear.

At some point, they will have to decide: hold out for the perfect option, or bet big on potential before someone else does.