Barcelona Sporting Director Deco to take legal action over Vitor Roque comments

Barcelona Sporting Director Deco has not taken kindly to comments made by ex-presidential candidate Victor Font, and plans to take legal action against him. Font insinuated that there was underhand business afoot during the deal to take Vitor Roque to the club during an interview this week.

As per MD, Deco has decided to take legal action against Font, presumably for defamation, for his comments on RAC1. Font had the following to say.

“What is not normal raises suspicions. Let them come out and explain it. If Barça planned and was transparent, there would be no fuss like what happened with Barca Studios or the signing of Vitor Roque, since it is not known what interests were behind it.”

Font also noted that Deco was Roque’s agent, and then made the signing when he became the Sporting Director, which as is pointed out, was in fact Andre Cury and not Deco. As reported by La Vanguardia (via Relevo), Roque was offered to Barcelona first in January of 2023, when then Director of Football Mateu Alemany and Sporting Director Jordi Cruyff rejected the deal due to sporting and economic reasons.

Their reporting claims that Deco was working for the club as a scout at the time, and recommended the signing of Roque, and then when he got into the role at Barcelona, activated the operation again. There is so far no confirmation on the internal goings on at Barcelona, but clearly Deco disputes this version of events.

The 19-year-old set Barcelona back by €30m, plus another €31m in variables, albeit none have been achieved from his time in the Catalan capital. Roque has since been loaned out to Real Betis, who have a €25m option to buy 80% of the forward’s rights next summer. So far it’s been a tricky spell in Europe for Roque, despite some streaky form for Betis.