Swedish talent Lucas Bergvall will join up with his new teammates at Tottenham Hotspur in the summer, and not Barcelona. The 18-year-old was wanted by many of Europe’s top clubs, but just when it seemed Barcelona had won the race for his signature, Spurs appeared at the last moment.
“I feel better in my stomach. They are both incredible clubs.,” said Bergvall after making the move.
“It was a very difficult choice, it was 50-50 for a long time, but I felt that the next step for me was Tottenham. It was not very easy to say no to Barcelona, it took me a long time to decide. It was a difficult decision.”
However Sport say that Barcelona feel the agents are to blame for the collapse of the deal. While previously it has been reported that Bergvall’s family persuaded him to take the Spurs offer over Barcelona’s, feeling it to be a better fit, the Catalan daily claim it is in part down to the agents of Bergvall.
They believe that they used Barcelona’s name for many monts to gain publicity and attention for their client, and played Barcelona while inflating his price for Spurs. In their minds, the teenager was keen to move to the Blaugrana, but things started to go wrong in the final hours of the transfer market.
Their story is that the agents, Nordic Sky, who also represent Martin Odegaard, demanded around 20% in commission over the 10% that is customary. Equally, they demanded that Bergvall be given a first-team spot rather than the initially agreed Barca Atletic registration.
Sporting Director Deco did not move from the offer they had made in spite of the demands, and seeing their intentions, but ultimately, Spurs agreed a deal with Djurgardens for more money.
Bergvall, the agents and Djurgardens will all earn more from the deal that went through, and if Barcelona cannot match that price, then they are liable to lose out on a number of players. Equally, it is perhaps concerning that a former agent like Deco did not spot these movements earlier.
