Updated: 28 Apr 2026 14:58 BST |<\/span> Barcelona have identified Chelsea forward Joao Pedro as an alternative to top transfer target Julian Alvarez, according to reports in Spain.<\/p>\n The Brazil international has enjoyed an excellent debut campaign at Stamford Bridge, since arriving from Brighton & Hove Albion for \u20ac63.7 million last July, and he has cemented himself as the clear first choice number nine since the turn of the year.<\/p>\n Pedro has notched 22 goals and provided nine assists in 49 games for Chelsea and his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) has risen beyond the \u20ac70m mark as a result of his immense form for the west London giants.<\/p>\n Chelsea are expected to dip into the transfer market in order to bring a new forward to the club this summer, amid the woes of fellow summer signing Liam Delap, but they could also be forced to pursue a replacement for Pedro if reports from Spain are to be believed.<\/p>\n That is because Barcelona have earmarked the 24-year-old as a \u201cclear alternative\u201d to the aforementioned Alvarez, who is currently regarded as their dream long-term successor to Robert Lewandowski.<\/p>\n Spanish radio station SER Chain<\/b> claim that Pedro is a player that Barcelona \u201creally like\u201d and former Blaugrana star Bojan Krkic revealed that he spoke to the Brazilian during his time at Brighton.<\/p>\n \u201cA year and a half ago, I spoke with his agent through Ansu Fati. I spoke with the player, and he directed me to his agent without any ulterior motive, simply to keep him in mind for a potential move to Spain. I liked him a lot. He’s a complete forward who Ancelotti really likes, and he can play as an attacking midfielder or a striker,\u201d Bojan said.<\/p>\n \u201cI see him as very good in tight spaces and he’s ideal for Barca and for what (Hansi) Flick wants,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Despite rumoured interest from Barcelona, Pedro is highly unlikely to leave Chelsea after just one season and a sale simply shouldn\u2019t be permitted by the Blues hierarchy.<\/p>\n He has been a standout player since his arrival at Stamford Bridge and although a number of areas are in need of reinforcements in west London, the centre forward position isn\u2019t one thanks to the presence of Pedro.<\/p>\n He knits together Chelsea\u2019s attack in a manner that no other player in the Blues\u2019 squad is capable of and with Cole Palmer misfiring for the majority of the 2025-26 season to date, Pedro has been the main man this term.<\/p>\n Barcelona\u2019s interest will therefore come as little surprise, given the Brazilian\u2019s form in recent months and their pursuit of a new striker, but Chelsea hold all the power as his contract isn\u2019t due to expire until 2033 and a sale is therefore highly unlikely to be permitted.<\/p>\n Chelsea receive fresh Enzo Fernandez transfer hint<\/b><\/p>\n Ranking Chelsea’s 10 potential Liam Rosenior replacements<\/b><\/p>\n Chelsea Transfer News Today: Estevao exit threat as \u20ac120m offer prepared<\/b><\/p>\n Check out FootballTransfers’ new app for all of football’s big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.<\/p>\n The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:<\/p>\n \u2022Google Play<\/b><\/p>\n \u2022App Store<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Updated: 28 Apr 2026 14:58 BST | 4 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Barcelona have identified…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Verdict: Chelsea can\u2019t sell Joao Pedro to Barcelona<\/h2>\n
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