Five things to know about Portuguese sensation Gelson Martins

#5 Barcelona’s missed opportunity

Barcelona opted to sign Agostinho(R) instead of Gelson

Barcelona can be credited with the most optimistic and eventually the best piece of youth signing in the form of Lionel Messi. In desperate times, the Barcelona official charged with the Messi case got the signature of the Argentinian and his family on a napkin. But sometimes, clubs let slip such opportunities. One such case is associated with the transfer dealings between Sporting and Barcelona for the transfer of Jeffren Suarez to the Portuguese club in 2012.

The transfer of Suarez brought on a liability for Sporting of roughly €1 million. As Sporting were in a financial mess, Barcelona was offered the chance to acquire Sporting’s youth players as part of the deal.

With the likes of Martins and Joao Mario in the youth set up, Barcelona instead chose to acquire Edgar Le and Agostinho Ca. Mario has since been sold for €40 million and Martins will attract a similar price at the least. With the international director of sports at Barcelona, Ariedo Braida recently confirming their interest in Gelson Martins, Barcelona indeed missed on a fabulous opportunity four years ago.