Barcelona are reportedly ahead of arch-rivals Real Madrid in the race to sign 18-year-old Spanish prodigy Pablo Torre from Racing Santander.
According to a report from MARCA, Real Madrid are trailing bitter rivals Real Madrid in pursuit of exciting Racing Santander attacking midfielder Pablo Torre ahead of the summer transfer window.
Having begun his footballing journey at the academy of CD Marina Sport, Torre made the move to Racing Santander’s youth setup at a very young age. The teenager has enjoyed a rapid rise through the ranks at the club as he made his first-team breakthrough in 2020 at the age of 17 years and 6 months.
Torre enjoyed an impressive debut campaign with Racing Santander and has managed to build upon it with an even more eye-catching campaign in 2021/22 so far. The 18-year-old attacking midfielder has racked up a tally of six goals and seven assists from just 23 games for the Spanish outfit, catching the eye of several clubs, including Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Real Madrid have been working hard to strengthen their ranks at the academy level, with their Castilla outfit brimming with exciting, young talents from within Spain and across the globe, looking to build their next-gen superstars from within the club. To that end, they made several signings last summer and now see Torre as another fitting addition, who could even make a splash at the first-team level immediately.
As per the report, Los Blancos have been working to sign the 18-year-old since December last year, having met the player and his family. However, despite all their efforts, it seems like Barcelona are currently ahead of Real Madrid in the race to sign Torre, largely thanks to the presence of Xavi Hernandez as manager.
The 42-year-old has shown tremendous faith in youngsters since taking over, while he also has the same agent as the young Racing Santander starlet, which seems to have worked out in favour of the Blaugrana.
The report states that both Barcelona and Real Madrid would be offering Torre a contract between four to five years. And despite the latter’s intentions to make a more lucrative financial proposal, the Spanish Under-19 international is leaning towards Barcelona as he feels Los Blancos are not showing the same level of confidence in him as their rivals.
Torre has a termination clause worth €10 million, but a lower fee is likely to be negotiated for his exit. Apart from Barcelona and Real Madrid, clubs like Real Sociedad, Ajax, FC Twente and even Arsenal have shown an interest, while Wolves tried to sign him in January. But as things stand, Barça have their noses ahead of their competitors to capture the youngster, who has been touted as the ‘next Pedri’.
