Barcelona Vice-President Rafa Yuste, standing in for Joan Laporta at Vitor Roque’s presentation on Friday, has declared that the Brazilian’s signing was down to Sporting Director Deco.
Roque said that it was a dream come true to sign for the club, and he will follow in a line of great Brazilians to have graced the shirt, including Ronaldo Nazario, Ronaldinho, Romario and Rivaldo.
“You all know what Brazilians represent for our club. They all have a smile, in addition to their quality. Vitor has what is sorely missing in this world, that smile,” Yuste told MD.
He went on to say that Roque’s arrival was chiefly down to Deco.
“All this does not happen by chance. With this sports commission, with Masip, Joan Sole, Bojan and above all with Deco. We said about Deco that he knew very well how to handle negotiations and that he knows how to find international talent. It was his idea to bring Vitor here. Thank you very much Deco.”
No doubt Yuste sought to give credit to Deco, and show his effectiveness in his new role. It was Laporta’s idea to bring Deco in. However it does raise questions over Deco’s role in 2023. Barcelona were presumed to be working with Deco as their sporting director as early as May or June, but his position was not made official until mid-August. The reason being was that he had a conflict of interests. Deco was an agent, and Barcelona club statutes required him to leave that role before he started working for them.
However Roque’s deal was annouced on the 12th of July this year – the deal was certainly done before Deco officially arrived. If Deco did only start working for Barcelona in May or June, then either their scouting for a €61m signing was completed within a month or two of his arrival, or Deco had started making influencing club decisions while he was an agent.
Deco had worked for the club as a consultant scout, but the timeline of that role is unclear, given he was operating as an agent too. It may be entirely innocent, that he merely suggested the name of Roque to the club and they were persuaded, but at some point in the chain of events, there is a definite lack of clarity of who was doing what and when.
