The 'next Ronaldo' Arsenal could sign in stunning summer swoop - if the rumours are true

Just last summer, Arsenal were reported to be among the clubs interested in signing Vitor Roque from Athletico Paranaense, a teenage striker who has drawn justifiable comparisons with Ronaldo Nazário. They lost that particular battle to Barcelona, but that move has turned sour already – and whispers are beginning to build up about a possible second bite at the cherry.

The deal to bring Roque to Spain was worth an initial €31m (£26.4m) with add-ons that could take the deal northwards of £50m - but at this rate precious few of them will be triggered. An initial plan to leave the 19-year-old in Brazil for a year was shelved when injuries struck and he arrived in Catalonia in January to a fair amount of fanfare – but was quickly sidelined by now-departed head coach Xavi.

Roque made just two starts in La Liga and was given a mere 328 minutes of game time, although he did score twice in consecutive matches against Osasuna and Alavés. Since then, however, it’s all gone a bit wrong, with media reports claiming Xavi didn’t even speak to his striker during training sessions. By the time April rolled around, Roque was restricted to the bench and occasional cameos.

His agent, André Cury, has not taken his client’s apparent exclusion lying down: “Everyone thinks that Vitor Roque has to have more minutes and no one understands why the coach doesn't give them to him. Xavi never spoke to the player. I do not understand this situation and I think it is not good for either party.”

Normally, when a player is sidelined and his agent starts agitating, a move isn’t far away, and a few media outlets have drawn the inference that Arsenal could line a fresh bid up this summer. But what kind of player would they be getting, and how likely is that to happen?

Roque, who made his Brazil debut in a friendly against Morocco last spring, is a down-the-line number nine, blessed with exceptional pace, strength and the finishing prowess to make sure the comparisons to Ronaldo are far from specious. In full flow, he can be quite a sight, and he has the goals to back the first impressions up – he scored 12 in the 2023 Série A season from 19 starts, and hit seven in 12 games for Brazil’s Under-20s before briefly stepping up to the senior squad.

His powerful finishing and bullish physicality catch the eye first, but he also has fine movement and the knack for finding a spare half-yard to get away from defenders – in other words, he has all the key qualities that typically go into making a great central striker. Given the deficiency Arsenal have in that area right now, it isn’t hard to see where the appeal would be.

Admittedly, Roque has a few deficiencies of his own. While he has startling speed, his close control and dribbling skill isn’t a patch on Ronaldo’s – yet, at least - and he doesn’t have the ability to reliably beat a man to get into the box with the ball at his feet. His link-up play is also somewhat lacking and he isn’t the kind of forward who gets great results coming deep to get the ball or plying the channels – he needs to be the last man to be at his best, and he needs the service to match. Happily, in that slightly more limited role, he has excelled, at least in his home country.

There will be plenty of speculation as to why it’s gone south so quickly in Barcelona. Xavi told the media when asked about the situation that he felt Roque had been brought over to Spain too early, but didn’t address claims that he had frozen him out on a personal level. If there are attitudinal issues or other concerns, they haven’t been made public, and all that can be said with confidence is that Xavi didn’t see him as a necessary part of his plan.

But does that all add up to a move to Arsenal? Their past interest is probably genuine and they have plenty of scouting links in Brazil, but the claims that they could be on the cusp of another bid seem to be drawn from inference alone. Most of the articles floating around on the internet link back to Football.London, who themselves cite Catalan newspaper Sport as a source, but there is no sign of an article on the Sport website which corroborates the story.

In other words, while Arsenal are looking for a striker and there is every chance that Vitor Roque will push for an early exit from Barcelona, at the moment there seems to be no solid grounds on which to assume that the Gunners will make a move – it’s reasonable to infer that they will monitor the situation, but that’s as much as can sensibly be said at the moment. In any case, Xavi has now been sacked by the troubled Catalan club and incoming head coach Hansi Flick may well form a very different view of the youngster - and he himself may well be happy to see how the new regime treats him. His agent’s belligerent comments came before Xavi was relieved of his duties.

So for now, while there is no reason to suggest that a move is particularly implausible, it doesn’t necessarily seem likely. Arsenal will likely prefer to spend their budget on someone whose goals can be absolutely relied upon, and Roque’s troubling spell in Spain may not instil confidence that he can translate his early successes to a higher level, at least in the short term. But if they do make a move, then there is undoubtedly a hugely impressive talent there, waiting to be unleashed.