Initial Barcelona Move a Bust
Just last July the Brazilian was brought into the fold at Barcelona, forward to this January and he may already be on the move away from Spain. Barcelona paid a pretty healthy transfer fee to obtain Malcom’s signature, $44M(€41M) to be exact. While he was coming off a scorching run of form for French side Bordeaux, Malcom has not exactly been the fit the Spanish Giants had hoped form. In the last two campaigns in France, Malcom played beautiful soccer. 2016/17 saw him score seven goals, while adding on four assists. Mind you Malcom was still a teenager at that time, 2017/18 saw glowing improvement to an already up and coming wunderkind. Malcolm punched 12 goals and added on seven assists during his final French campaign. Bordeaux had their hand forced as most non giant European clubs do when it came time to sell Malcom. Turning an almost €40M profit is a huge deal for any club, let alone a mid-table French squad. Barcelona won the signature, not without controversy however, and the player officially became a Barcelona man in July of 2018. Obviously things haven’t went according to plan if he’s already being thrown into the transfer rumor mosh pit just one window later.
Chinese Super League Back at it
Guangzhou Evergrande are following recent Chinese Super League norms by offering an absurd salary to a Brazilian star/semi-star. While not reported at this time, one would figure Malcom would garner a hefty wage from the CPL side. His current Barcelona deal, €90,000 in weekly wages, would surely be more in line with the Super League top salaries. Granted, the CSL did place a salary cap restriction starting this season, but I do not see that as a deterring factor if the Chinese club is able to lure Barcelona into allowing Malcom to leave less than a full six months removed from his acquisition. That’s a tricky aspect of the deal, does Malcom already feel as though he will be unable to break into Valverde’s XI anytime soon? On the flip side, do the men above Valverde and Valverde himself feel good enough about the prospects of Malcom becoming what many thought(and still think in most circles) his potential teased at Bordeaux?
Valverde Holds the Keys
In the end, it might be a tough move so soon after joining Barcelona, but if his opportunities are not increased, I do not see him starting the 2019/2020 season in Spain. We are talking about a blossoming talent, a future Brazilian superstar, someone who really wishes he ended up in Rome after all I’m sure. In perspective of his minutes he has received this season, he wouldn’t even be considered a squad rotation member. For comparison, last season in France(and the previous as well) Malcom played right around 3,000 minutes on the pitch. During the first half of his inaugural Barcelona season Malcom has seen the field for right around 127 minutes. Yep, not a great mesh with Valverde evidently. Malcolm will almost certainly be granted more playing time in the second half, at least in the Copa Del Rey. In the end, if he’s not going to break into the team with Valverde, Barcelona needs to cut ties and take the slight profit gain on the €50M offer from Evergrande
