Barcelona in the hunt for Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan

Barcelona has stepped up their pursuit of adding more pace, mobility and craft to their midfield by identifying Ilkay Gundogan as the ‘new Xavi.’ The Blaugrana has set their sights on the future replacing Xavi and sees the 23 year old as the ideal addition to lead the club into the future and hopefully gain more success.

Barcelona has stepped up their pursuit of adding more pace, mobility and craft to their midfield by identifying Ilkay Gundogan as the ‘new Xavi.’ The Blaugrana has set their sights on the future replacing Xavi and sees the 23 year old as the ideal addition to lead the club into the future and hopefully gain more success.

Gundogan moved to Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2011 as a direct replacement for Nuri Sahin who had moved to Real Madrid. He took a little while settle in but as soon as he became familiar with his surroundings at the Signal Iduna Park, he showed exactly why Jurgen Klopp pursued his signature. He has developed into one of the best midfield maestros in world football and in the process earning 8 caps for Germany in a very competitive midfield.

Gundogan is a technically gifted player who has the ability to get past his opponents, dictate play, has a fantastic work rate and mobility. His range of passing is one of the best in Europe and he is the player who gets BVB team ticking, playing their slick passing and attractive attacking football.

Gungodan is also a target for English outfits Manchester United and Arsenal as well as Juventus so Barcelona won’t get a free run at the gifted young German starlet. Dortmund is also trying to keep their star midfielder but he has so far refused to sign a new contract. Surely Michael Zorc, Hans-Joachim Watzke and Jurgen Klopp will do all they can to keep hold of Gundogan.

Spanish newspaper AS has stated that Barcelona sent representatives to Germany in hope of getting negotiations on the way. Sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta has set his sights on bringing Gundogan and Marc-Andre ter Stegen as he looks to freshen up the Blaugrana squad in the hope of success in the future.

Writer: Yashiema Love