You're reading: Sports blog: Barcelona targets Yarmolenko after English clubs rejected

Barcelona’s most read soccer newspaper Sport on Aug. 25-26 has reported that Dynamo Kyiv forward Andriy Yarmolenko is wanted at Camp Nou as a replacement.

It’s the latest transfer development for
the 25-year-old Dynamo captain whose progress as a soccer player
is peaking in the domestic league and requires top flight experience to reach full
potential.

Ever since Dynamo re-claimed the premier
league championship last season, it has received and rejected a number of
offers for Yarmolenko, among which from Stoke City and Everton.

 

Although Yarmolenko’s contract runs
through June 2016, he has called on Dynamo’s president Ihor Surkis to honor an
oral agreement that he wouldn’t leave the club until a domestic league trophy is
hoisted once again.

 

However, Dynamo has maintained, at least
publicly, that the offers for the striker were not of Yarmolenko’s caliber, and
that the club would only let him go to a top European club. Stoke
City is not participating in UEFA’s two club tournaments this season. Even
Dynamo head coach Serhiy Rebrov has
publicly stated that Stoke City “is not of Yarmolenko’s level.”

 

According to lawyer Markiyan
Kliuchkovskyi, head of sports law practice at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners in Kyiv, Yarmolenko
has implied that he won’t sign a contract extension if offered one, and that he
would work off the remainder of his contract, and sign with another club as a free
agent next summer if he has to.

 

This carries the risk of receiving less
interest if he underperforms this season or if he sustains an injury,
Kliuchkovskyi told the Kyiv Post.

 

Complicating the situation is the transfer
embargo imposed on Barcelona by FIFA until January, and with the current transfer
window for players closing at midnight on Aug. 31.

 

Barcelona reportedly is looking for
someone to replace 28-year-old winger Pedro who went to Chelsea in lieu of two homegrown players. The idea is to
have someone ready to perform in case Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, or Neymar get
hurt.

 

Spanish
newspaper Sport
reported that Everton offered €24.5 million for the
1.89-meter Ukrainian striker. It called him the “new Shevchenko” in reference
to former Dynamo great Andriy Shevchenko who shined with AC Milan before
playing for Chelsea and ending his career back with Dynamo.

 

Scouts note that the left-legged Yarmolenko is a talented
player who uses his height to his advantage and tricky footwork to get past
players, while also being a deadly sniper during set pieces. Over the past
weekend he surpassed 100
goals in official Dynamo matches
with a hat trick in a Ukraine Cup fixture
during which he also had three assists.

 

Should Dynamo accept Barcelona’s reported €20
million offer, according to Kliuchkovskyi, the Spanish club would buy
Yarmolenko but immediately send him back to Kyiv on a six-month loan because of
the FIFA sanctions it faces. Reports though suggest that Barcelona would only
lend him under the condition that Dynamo doesn’t play him in the Champions
League. UEFA doesn’t allow a player to appear for two clubs in one season
during sanctioned club tournaments.

 

Legally, it is still not clear how Barcelona’s proposed
transfer-and-loan option is going to work, according to Kliuchkovskyi.

 

Dynamo hasn’t responded to this offer and
reportedly offered Yarmolenko a contract extension, which he is expected to
reject, the lawyer said.

Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].