Transfer market excitementFamous football agent Pini Zahavi is in Barcelona, using his time in the Catalan city to meet several of his players and to sit down with Barça president Joan Laporta as the transfer market rumbles on.
According to Spanish newspaper “Sport”, Laporta and Zahavi met yesterday evening at the hotel where the agent usually stays during his visits to the city.
Naturally, the meeting drew attention because it landed slap in the middle of the transfer window. Sources familiar with the encounter, however, played down any link to a deal.
Those same sources confirmed it was primarily a friendly get-together. Laporta and Zahavi have enjoyed an excellent personal relationship for many years, forged through countless dealings in the world of football. Both parties are always keen to take advantage of being in the same place at the same time to meet and swap the latest news.
Zahavi and Barcelona remain extremely close. The agent was one of the key figures in Robert Lewandowski’s move to the Catalan club, and he currently represents Hansi Flick, with whom he shares a very close bond.
Club FriendliesBaselBAS16 Aug 202622:30BarcelonaBARA number of promising young talents at the Barcelona academy also feature on Zahavi’s client list, among them Ibrahima Toncara and Aaron Yakubchvili.
Expect the future of some of Zahavi’s players to be settled in the coming weeks. Yakubchvili is one of those whose situation remains up in the air, with the possibility of leaving once again to keep getting playing minutes away from Barcelona, though nothing has been decided yet.
For now, the sources consulted insist on attaching no transfer-market significance to the meeting between Laporta and Zahavi. Two old friends in football simply seized on the agent’s presence in Barcelona to catch up, during days of intense activity inside the club’s offices.
