Barcelona will face Monaco on Thursday night in their opening clash of the 2024/25 Champions League season, and under treble-winning coach Hansi Flick, the Blaugrana will like their chances of going further in this year’s competition.
They have already seen a huge boost in results to start the season under Flick, who has turned the Barcelona attack into a vaunted machine, integrating young prospects and more experienced starters alike.
Monaco have not lost any of their four Ligue 1 matchups so far this season and are thus a good first test for Barcelona in the Champions League. They also happen to have a couple of players Barcelona could be interested in purchasing.
According to a report from Diario Sport, Barcelona sporting director Deco will be watching right back Vanderson and left back Caio Henrique closely, as the Brazilians are two of the best fullbacks in European football right now.
Highly underrated, Vanderson has been playing the right back position at a high level defensively for a couple of seasons now, and he was once on Real Madrid’s radar as a backup for Dani Carvajal.
This season, Vanderson has a goal and an assist in Ligue 1 with four combined tackles and interceptions per game, as he continues to entrench himself as a top-class right back.
Henrique is a more attacking wing back and could be an interesting option to back Alejandro Balde up. He has one assist with 1.5 tackles, 1.5 key passes, and 1.0 dribbles completed per game in the French top flight this season.
Vanderson and Henrique now have a little extra motivation to shine against Barcelona, because who wouldn’t want to play for one of the three biggest clubs in the world?
Out of these two, Vanderson is the better player, four years younger, and fits a bigger need for Barcelona at right back. So if Culers are to familiarize themselves with just one player, then it should be the 23-year-old.
And here’s a fun fact that makes signing one of these two easier if others at Barcelona are on board. Deco used to be the agent of Vanderson and Caio Henrique before taking the Barca job, so technically, he doesn’t need to scout them much.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.