Barcelona's No. 9 Hunt: Tresoldi Emerges as Alternative

Barcelona will sign a centre-forward before the window shuts. Inside the club, that’s not a hope, it’s a promise.

The conviction at the Ciutat Esportiva remains that Julián Álvarez will eventually arrive. The belief is rooted in one key idea: the Argentine wants out of Atlético Madrid. But the clock is ticking, and the sporting department knows blind faith is not a strategy. While they keep the path clear for Álvarez, they are quietly building escape routes.

One of those routes now has a name: Nicolo Tresoldi.

Tresoldi, the Brugge breakout who won’t go away

Reports in England, echoed by SPORT, place the Club Brugge striker firmly on Barcelona’s shortlist. He was the revelation of the Belgian league last season, finishing as Brugge’s top scorer and forcing Europe’s scouts to take notice.

Still only 21, Tresoldi is already a Germany U-21 international and carries the kind of ceiling big clubs like to bet on. Premier League sides have already tested the water. AS Roma did too. All of them heard the same answer from Brugge: more than €40 million, or don’t bother. So far, nobody has gone high enough, and the forward remains in Belgium.

Barcelona, for their part, have done their homework. The club already hold detailed information on a potential deal and have opened lines of communication with the player’s camp, but they have not yet moved into formal negotiations. Scouts have been poring over his games in recent days, treating him as one of the most attractive young No. 9s realistically on the market.

Hansi Flick knows the profile well. The Barça coach has received strong reports from Germany’s youth set-up and is aware of how sharply Tresoldi has progressed. Inside the club, there is a clear sense that he has the tools to grow into a star.

A striker who already hurt Barça

Barcelona don’t have to imagine how Tresoldi might look against them. They’ve already lived it.

In last season’s Champions League, the forward scored in a wild 3-3 draw against the Blaugrana and spent the night tormenting their back line. That performance, more than any scouting clip, left a mark.

Across the campaign, Tresoldi hit 24 goals in all competitions and consistently carried Brugge’s attacking burden. The Belgian club know exactly what they have on their hands and are notoriously tough at the negotiating table. Barça discovered that during the deal for Jesse Bisiwu. Brugge will not roll over.

At the same time, there is realism in Belgium: if a heavyweight club arrives with a serious offer, keeping Tresoldi becomes almost impossible.

Why he fits — and why he still scares Barça

From a pure footballing perspective, Tresoldi ticks many of Barcelona’s current boxes for a No. 9. He links play well, combines neatly in tight areas and comes alive against deep, compact defensive blocks — the kind of set-up Barça face almost every weekend in La Liga.

Inside the box, he is ruthless. His finishing stands out as his main weapon. Dribbling in open spaces, though, is not yet a strength, and he remains a work in progress in several areas of his game.

That’s the crux of the internal debate. His profile is exactly the type Barcelona are targeting, but he is not a finished article. At over €40 million, that turns into a sizeable gamble for a club still walking a financial tightrope.

Álvarez still Plan A, Tresoldi among the fallbacks

Despite the growing noise around alternatives, the roadmap at Barcelona hasn’t changed. Julián Álvarez remains Plan A for Flick and Deco. Every other name, including Tresoldi, is being treated as part of a contingency plan, not a replacement strategy.

The La Liga champions are prepared to wait as long as they can for the Álvarez operation to open up. While they wait, the recruitment team continues to scan the market, stacking options, stress-testing scenarios and measuring risk. Tresoldi is firmly in that second tier of possibilities.

Barcelona know they cannot afford to miss on their next No. 9. The question now is simple: do they hold out for their ideal choice, or jump on a rising talent before someone else does?