Barcelona are set to miss out on Argentine youngster Gianluca Prestianni, who caught the eye as a 16-year-old making his debut for Velez Sarsfield.
Real Madrid were also mentioned in contention with Prestianni, now 17, but Barcelona were much more heavily linked in the latter stages of last year.
However the paper trail has been quiet for some months regarding Barcelona, and now Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Prestianni will sign with Portuguese giants Benfica.
Understand Benfica have now reached an agreement with Vélez for the ‘future’ signing of wonderkid Gianluca Prestianni 🚨🔴🦅
The agreement will be a ‘priority option’ to sign Prestianni… in order to complete the deal in 2024.
🇦🇷 Prestianni said yes to Benfica.
Here we go ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/HohNZxqxO2
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 3, 2023
The deal will go through in 2024, according to Romano. TyCSports claim that Benfica have upped their offer to close to his €11m release clause.
This season Prestianni has made 24 appearances for Velez, scoring three times and giving an assist too.
Thought to be one of the brighter talents emerging out of Argentina currently, Barcelona will no doubt be disappointed to lose out on him. Much like with Arda Guler though, they have a set of financial restraints they can work within currently, and it is simply not an option over-spend on potential.
