The Brazilian wonderkid wanted by Arsenal and Barcelona

Neel Shelat

• 14 Jun 2023 17:00 BST
• 8 min read

The Brasileirão is always a hotbed of young talent, so it is one of the leagues to watch if you want to see the next stars in the making.

Europe’s biggest clubs have certainly realised this, as they are increasingly starting to sign youngsters directly from the league. The most recent high profile move saw Endrick sign with Real Madrid, and he might well be followed by a fellow young forward who is being linked with a move to a major Spanish club.

That player is Vitor Roque, who is currently plying his trade for Athletico Paranaense. The 18-year-old striker is already used to high-profile transfers, having seen his case go to the State Labour Department when he moved from the youth team of América Mineiro to Cruzeiro.

After breaking through in the senior team of the Ronaldo-owned club who played in the Brazilian second tier at the time, Roque quickly began attracting interest from elsewhere in the country. In early 2022, he was snapped up by Athletico Paranaense for a club-record transfer fee of about €4.70 million.

The fact that Athletico Paranaense were willing to spend such a hefty fee (by the league’s standards) on a 17-year-old should tell you all about Roque’s potential, which he has quickly made quite apparent. As a result, they are likely to receive multiple times that amount when he moves to Europe as clubs such as Barcelona, Chelsea and Arsenal are said to be interested in signing him.

Malleable centre-forward

An interesting thing to note about Roque is that he played in a variety of forward positions in his youth career, but has exclusively been used as a centre-forward at Athletico Paranaense. As a result, Roque is quite interesting in the sense that he could go in any direction in terms of his development.

A quick look at his stats from last season through a pizza chart seems to suggest that he did fairly well in various departments, most importantly goal-scoring but also chance creation, dribbling and defending.

All things considered, SciSports ranked him among the top four centre-forwards in the league last season, which is obviously quite impressive for someone who was only 17 years old at the time.

Roque returned with five goals in the Brasileirão last season along with two in the Copa Libertadores.

This year, he has added seven to that tally in all competitions – a couple in the national league, four in the regional Campeonato Paraense and one in the Copa Libertadores.

Looking at his shotmap from his time with the Furacão, we see that mostly gets into very good positions inside the box before pulling the trigger. Naturally, therefore, most of his goals come from there.

His overall involvement and positioning is quite interesting. He only averaged about 25 touches per 90 in the league last season which placed him in the 11th percentile among forwards, but when he did get involved in the build-up play, he tended to pop up all over the place.

When Roque does drop back and receive the ball a little bit away from goal, he shows good physicality despite his smaller stature. He shields the ball away from defenders well, and can pull out a quick turn as well as a burst of pace to beat them.

His speed certainly his standout quality, both when he runs in behind…

…or is carrying the ball.

Roque’s most interesting attribute probably is his dribbling. He tends to attempt a fair few take-ons (about 3.2 per 90 in the league last season) but is only successful with roughly 30% of them. He is quick and can change direction quickly, but his ball control can tend to be a bit clunky at times.

You might not have been able to guess what Roque’s strong foot was considered in his youth career, as various websites list him as left-footed. However, he quite clearly can finish with his right foot too.

On the whole, Roque clearly is a very talented youngster who is capable of producing game-changing moments, but there are aspects of his game that can still develop a fair bit. It should be interesting to see what direction he does that in, as he could become a more complete mobile forward by working on his link-up play or further enhance his goal-scoriong and cut out some of the drifting to become a more out-and-out striker.

Where should Roque go next?

Of course, the big question at the moment is where Roque should move next. As aforementioned, names such as Chelsea, Arsenal and Barcelona are being linked with him. His current contract runs till 2027 so he will certainly command a hefty transfer fee, most likely the value of his release clause. There is some confusion around that, as some reports suggest that it is worth €60m but other claim it goes up to €100m for European clubs.

Both of those figures are very big to spend on a teenager untested at the elite European level, but we are increasingly seeing clubs take such risks. €100m would surely be too pricey to be sensible, but if Roque’s release clause is indeed €60m, some clubs will be tempted to pay it.

Chelsea are seemingly linked to every promising youngster these days, but that probably is good reason for such players to stay away from them. They really need to undergo a bit of a clearout this summer, so that part of London is not the best for Roque to go to.

Arsenal, however, might be an interesting option. They have history in the Brazilian market having signed Gabriel Martinelli and Marquinhos from their home country, and Roque should have no problems integrating into a squad with two other Gabriels too. Indeed, his development would also benefit if he works closely with Gabriel Jesus week in week out.

On the other hand, Barcelona probably offer the clearest pathway to regular football. Jesus is only 26 years old and Arsenal also have other promising young strikers like Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun on their books, but Barcelona’s plan to replace the 34-year-old Robert Lewandowski remains unclear.

If Roque goes to Catalonia, he should have a very good shot at replacing him in a couple of years after he fully adapts to new surroundings.

Regardless of where he ends up, Roque seems to have a very bright future ahead of him and is one of the most exciting young talents in Brazil alongside Endrick, so he definitely is worth keeping an eye on.