Barcelona are reportedly tracking the progress of Carl Rushworth, having had the 20-year-old English goalkeeper scouted recently.
According to a report by Daily Mirror, Barcelona had a scout in attendance during a recent game that Walsall played against Newport County. In fact, this is not the first time that the Catalan giants have closely monitored the 20-year-old English goalkeeper, who has previously been scouted twice when he was on loan at non-league Worthing.
Carl Rushworth is starting to garner a name for himself as one of the most promising young shot stoppers plying their trade in England presently. The 20-year-old joined Brighton & Hove Albion from his local non-league club FC Halifax Town in 2019 but is yet to make a senior appearance for the Seagulls.
Instead, the English goalkeeper has been sent out on two season-long loan moves so far. The first of these loan spells was at Worthing in the 2019/20, where Barcelona first came about to scouting him in action. Currently, Rushworth is on his second temporary stint away from Brighton, having joined Walsall this past summer.
The youngster has been in fine touch so far for the League Two club, despite the fact that the Saddlers are tottering down at 19th in the standings. Rushworth, on his part, has kept two clean sheets in nine games so far, recently saving his fourth penalty of the season in the 2-1 loss to Newport County, with Barcelona once again keeping tabs on him.
The interest in the 20-year-old is interesting, seeing as Inaki Pena and Arnau Tenas are already a part of the first-team setup as backups to Marc-Andre ter Stegen. However, there have been claims that Barcelona are eager to send Pena out on loan so that he can earn first-team experience that will serve him well if and when he succeeds ter Stegen.
In addition, Neto is likely to be offloaded at the earliest possible opportunity, having been linked with Arsenal and Tottenham this past summer. With that in mind, Rushworth could well be an option worth pursuing for Barcelona, if Pena indeed joins another club on loan and Neto departs Camp Nou.
For now, Barcelona are simply tracking the progress of Rushworth, who continues to embark on an upward trajectory despite still waiting for his Brighton bow. What now remains to be seen is if the Blaugrana end up firming their interest in the 20-year-old English goalkeeper anytime in the future.
