Brazilian Outfit Gremio Deny They Have Reached Any Agreement With Barcelona Over Midfielder Arthur

Gremio have claimed no agreement has been struck up with Barcelona over the sale of their midfield star Arthur.

A report from Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo suggested recently that Barca would complete the signing of the 21-year-old in 2019's winter transfer window, but the club's president Romildo Bolzan Júnior denied the claims in a press conference.

EITAN ABRAMOVICH/GettyImages

He said, as quoted by globoesporte: "We were not told Arthur was sold. I will take into account that it is a journalistic matter that may have come from internal sources. But that there are negotiations, there are, that there are advances in some parts of the negotiation.

"One of them is that Arthur will stay with us for a while, but the Guild has not finalised and does not have a definite proposal. I will leave [this] as press speculation, not a business situation. Grêmio has no close deal with Barcelona."

Arthur appears to be on course to spend the next year in his homeland developing further, before likely joining Barcelona in a year's time.

AFP Contributor/GettyImages

At the moment, the Catalan giants have all three of their 'extra-community' spaces taken up by Paulinho, Yerry Mina and Philippe Coutinho, and the club are imploring the latter to get a Portuguese passport, which he is eligible for through his wife. The extra-community slots are for players who join Barca with nationalities not in the European Union.

There may also be slight complications around the player's image rights, with Gremio owning 60%, Arthur owning 20% and an investor, Celso Rigo, owning the other 20%.