This summer, Roque should have made a big splash at Barcelona.
After six months at Barcelona, the 19-year-old is set to start a brand new season. It's an opportunity to put last season's struggles behind us and a chance to reposition ourselves under a new coaching staff and reap the benefits of the summer build-up. Lewandowski played in the European Championship and returned late, and Roqueben had a chance to fight for the main position.
Former Barcelona boss Xavi had expressed doubts about Roque's ability, but he is no longer there. However, Flick has only been training for one month and the Brazil teenager's performance has not improved much - the player has a signing fee of at least 30 million euros, which could be as high as 31 million euros including add-ons.
Barça's pre-season tour in United States featured just one game, drawing 2-2 at Manchester City in regulation time and winning on penalties. Roque played 45 minutes in that game, touching the ball 17 times, making three passes, getting on the ground 0 and making nine turnovers (the most on the team).
A week earlier, in an internal warm-up match against Spain's fourth division side UE Olot, Roque started as a central striker. Sources who were present at the time told TA that Roque also struggled to play in that game.
Against Manchester City, Flick put Roque on the left before replacing him at half-time. He was replaced by 22-year-old former reserve striker Pau Victor, who was impressive, scoring one goal and also playing a big part in the other.
Victor, who was signed on a permanent basis from Girona for €3 million earlier this summer, was loaned to Barça B (playing in Spain's third tier) last season, scoring 20 goals and providing six assists. According to Barca sources, Victor is currently ahead of Roque in Flick's mind.
Barcelona fans may ask: when he signed Roque a year ago, he was considered a genius, how can this be now?
Let's take a look. In July 2023, Barcelona announced the signing of 18-year-old Atlético Paranaense striker Roque. Barca paid a fixed transfer fee of €30 million (with additional costs) and decided to send him on loan to Brazil for the remainder of the season. The original plan was for him to officially join Barcelona this summer, but the plan was brought forward as Barcelona retained his option to join in January 2024.
The signing was made during the tenure of former sporting director Mateu Alemani, but Deco was also involved in the deal. When Barça began to look at Roque, Deco was their main advisor in the Brazil market, and he informed Barça's decision to buy Roque.
Statistically, all the scouts in the world at the time had reason to be bullish on Roque. In the 2023 season, he played 45 games for Atlético Baranarense, scoring 21 goals and providing eight assists. A season earlier, at the age of 17, he played a few games for second-division side Cruzeiro, scoring 14 goals and providing five assists.
Barcelona have often missed out on Brazil's talented youngsters in recent years, such as Vinicius, Rodrygo and Endrick (who signed with Real Madrid in December 2022 at the age of 16 and turned 18 in July this year, just officially joined).
Roque's signing was seen by some at Barcelona as an opportunity to make amends. He and Endrick were seen as potential rivals for Brazil's main centre-forward position, so Barça decided to sign Roque despite financial difficulties.
However, Roque's plans to join Barcelona in the summer of 2024 soon changed. Halfway through last season, Barcelona were short of available personnel, with Pedri, Frenkie de Jong and Gabi injured, Oriol Romeu performing below expectations and the attackers struggling to find the back of the net.
Xavi met with Deco to see if it was possible to bring in reinforcements in the winter window. Xavi had hoped to bring in a new midfielder, but Barcelona could not afford to sign a new player. Subsequently, Deco told Xavi that it was possible to bring in Roque early.
Xavi is not deeply involved in Roque's signing, but has begun to lose faith in the team's main center, Robert Lewandowski. It's not a bad idea to have a new striker, someone who can also put some competitive pressure on Lewandowski. Harvey agreed to Deco's proposal.
It was also seen as a positive operation that could help Roque adapt to a new life, a new language, and a new level of football. Roque is very excited about the prospect of joining. He arrived at Barça in December 2023 and enjoyed star treatment on the club's social media platforms and was clearly labelled as Barça's new No.9 player.
However, just when everyone is happy, problems arise.
Everything that happens on the pitch is very different from the image that is marketed to the fans. In the second half of last season, Roque played 14 games for Barcelona, playing 353 minutes. In La Liga, he came off the bench to score 2+ goals, but Xavi couldn't find a reason to trust Roque because he was not very good at handling the ball and tandem.
At the time, sources within the coaching staff revealed that the youngster struggled to understand the pace of Barca's game. A number of sources who have seen him on the spot and trained him share the same view. They say he struggles to keep up with the pace of the team, especially in terms of technique, which is one of the key characteristics of Barca's style of play.
This is partly not Roque's fault. He's always been that kind of striker – physical, with tenacity and goalscoring instinct to play in the professional league. The striker is very powerful in the opposition box, but versatility is not his strength, nor is it playing with his team-mates.
Xavi's assistants believe that Roque's best outcome would be to leave on loan and gain some experience. It was like a dagger that stabbed Roque's confidence. Sources close to him did not understand and saw it as a ruthless decision because Roque had too few opportunities at Barca.
The reality is that at a crucial moment for the club, Barça invested more than €30 million in a player who was clearly not well known to some of the club's top brass and then agreed to let him come to Barca early and had high hopes for him, and the player could clearly not afford such expectations.
Speaking to the Catalan media in May, the player's agent, Andre Curry, said: "We don't understand why Vitor [Roque] isn't getting more playing time, it's not good for all parties. The kid needs to train hard and wait for his chance, but in a lot of games he could have gotten more playing time but the manager decided not to. At Barça, the media is very influential and they will lie. After 2 months, they made up a problem where people suddenly wanted to take out Victor Roque instead of helping him. We chose to play for Barcelona because he wanted to be and I think he can still be a good player. ”
It is worth noting that Curry also added this, seemingly ruling out the possibility of a loan: "If Barcelona don't develop him...... We need to find a solution. [But] if Vitor Roque has to leave Barca, it can only be an official transfer. ”
Three months have passed, and Roque's situation is getting worse and worse. Roque is not currently registered in La Liga. He only registered last season in place of the injured Gabi. To register him this season, Barcelona will need to meet La Liga's salary cap rules first, and their current financial situation means they may struggle to do so.
Barcelona have 2 games left in the pre-season in United States. Saturday night in New Jersey (7pm Eastern United States) against Real Madrid. Then it will be against AC Milan.
However, Flick's arrival and the new start for everyone at Barca have so far failed to bring the turning point that Roque needs. Now, there are fewer and fewer people who believe that he can find a turning point in the near future.