Barcelona Eyes Nicolo Tresoldi as No. 9 Option Amid Lautaro Pursuit
Barcelona’s search for a No. 9 has taken another sharp turn, and this time the trail runs through Belgium.
According to COPE journalist Victor Navarro, FC Barcelona have placed Club Brugge striker Nicolo Tresoldi on their shortlist for the centre-forward role, with the German U21 international said to be “very, very much liked” by the club’s hierarchy.
The change of direction comes straight after the definitive collapse of their push for Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez. Atletico CEO Miguel Angel Gil Marin has closed that door completely, forcing Barça to move quickly and rethink their attacking blueprint.
Inside the sporting department, there is no doubt about the first choice. Lautaro Martinez has emerged as the preferred option, with the La Liga champions ready to go all in to prise the Inter Milan captain away from San Siro. He is the consensus target, the big swing.
But Barcelona know they cannot afford to bet everything on one card. That is where Tresoldi enters the frame.
A rising No. 9 in Belgium
Tresoldi’s name does not yet carry the global weight of Lautaro’s, but his rise has been anything but quiet.
He first broke through at Hannover 96, showing enough promise in Germany to attract wider attention, yet it is his move to Club Brugge that has truly detonated his reputation. Since arriving in the summer of 2025, the 21-year-old has taken the Belgian Pro League by storm.
In his debut 2025/26 season, Tresoldi played a decisive role in delivering the league title to Jan Breydel Stadium. Across all competitions, he racked up 23 goals and 9 assists, numbers that instantly pushed him into the conversation as one of the most efficient young finishers on the continent.
The momentum has not slowed. In the current 2026/27 campaign, he has already started with three goals in his first three games, underlining that last season was no anomaly. For recruitment departments across Europe, this is the kind of consistency that turns curiosity into concrete interest.
Inside Barcelona, that production, coupled with his age and profile, has made Tresoldi one of the most admired alternatives in the file marked “Plan B”.
The price of potential
Admiration, though, is the easy part. Signing him is another story.
Tresoldi only joined Club Brugge last summer and signed a long-term deal that runs until 2039. That contract gives the Belgian champions enormous leverage at the negotiating table and makes any attempt to lure him away a complex and expensive operation.
Brugge have already shown their stance. They have rejected a substantial offer from AS Roma earlier in this window and are demanding a fee in excess of €40 million for the Germany U21 forward.
For Barcelona, wrestling with financial constraints while trying to refresh a title-winning squad, that figure forces a clear decision: is Tresoldi a secondary option behind Lautaro, or does he become a strategic investment for the next decade?
The club’s pursuit of a No. 9 is now a race against time and budget. And as the window ticks on, the question grows sharper: do they land the marquee name in Lautaro Martinez, or pivot decisively towards the rising star lighting up Bruges?
