After reports emerged of Barcelona B's interest in Orlando Pirates forward Relebohile Mofokeng, KickOff investigates the potential of a transfer.
It does not happen often that a South African player attracts interest from a super club as Barcelona, with the intention of bringing the player on board and not necessarily on trial, if reports by Soccer Laduma are anything to go by.
Our sister publication was backed by multiple Spanish soccer news outlets, which confirmed that the Blaugrana reserves are indeed keeping a close eye on Mofokeng.
The biggest challenge for the transfer to happen, could be how much Barcelona value the 20-year-old and whether the Vaal native is prepared to start his career in Europe playing in the third-tier of Spanish football.
READ | Pirates' CAF benefit pointed out
Barcelona B are campaigning in the Primera Federacion and it will depend also on the options available to Mofokeng, whether he would want to play in the third-tier, just because it's Barcelona, should he have other enticing offers on the table.
The most crucial point, however, will be the agreement of a transfer fee, as Barcelona B would not necessarily go above and beyond to acquire a player from Africa, when they probably have similar options in their development ranks.
In the last decade, the highest transfer fee paid by Barcelona to acquire a foreign player for their reserve side is €7.6m [R143 million] for Brazilian Matheus Pereira in the 2020/21 season, bought from Juventus Next Gen, the Bianconeri's reserve side, which also competes in the third tier of Italian football.
Pereira could not make it in the first team of the Catalan giants and was eventually sold to fellow Spanish side Eibar in the 2022/23, for their senior team in LaLiga, where he currently plays.
READ | Ndlanya: I'm disappointed with Pirates
The second highest transfer fee paid by Barca for their B team is Uruguayan Ronald Araujo, who was bought for €4.7 m [R88 million] in 2018 from Costa Rican club Boston River.
From Africa's point of view, the Blaugrana purchased Senegalese Mamadou Mbacke for their reserve side in July this year for €2 m [R37.5 million] from Major League Soccer (MLS) side Los Angeles.
In comparison to the PSL, Barca wouldn't pay higher, for example, than what they purchase from more recognized clubs or countries around the world and Pirates would also certainly not settle for lower transfer fees.