15 May 2026 12:15 BST |<\/span> Robin Bairner Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Barcelona are intensifying their interest in Chelsea striker Joao Pedro amid reports that Robert Lewandowski has agreed a massive contract with Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal.<\/p>\n Barca are focusing their attention on the transfer market on the centre-forward role. In an ideal world, Lewandowski would stay with the Catalan side, yet reports from Poland indicate that he has agreed a \u20ac90 million-per-season contract with Al-Hilal<\/b>.<\/p>\n With dream target Julian Alvarez of Atletico Madrid out of Barcelona\u2019s reach financially, they have turned their attentions towards Joao Pedro and are ready to step up their interest in the Brazil striker, Globo<\/i><\/b> reports.<\/p>\n The Blaugrana are ready to offer Chelsea \u20ac100 million for the 24-year-old and have even opened talks with the Premier League giants over a deal, according to the Brazilian source.<\/p>\n These discussions are in their early stages, but Globo claims that next week Barca sporting director Deco will ramp them up next week to understand the conditions of a deal.<\/p>\n If Lewandowski leaves, Barcelona want a signing lined up before the World Cup begins. This suggests that the deal could accelerate very quickly once Chelsea have played the FA Cup final on Saturday.<\/p>\n Barcelona face a major challenge to sign Joao Pedro because Chelsea do not want to sell a forward who is under contract until 2033 and has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of \u20ac76m.<\/p>\n One of their top performers this season, Globo<\/i> reports that the Blues have \u201cno interest\u201d in selling the player. This stance is echoed elsewhere. In the UK media, the Daily Mail<\/i><\/b> describes Joao Pedro as being \u201cuntouchable\u201d at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n Football transfer reporter Fabrizio Romano discussed the possibility of Joao Pedro signing for Barcelona<\/b> on his YouTube channel:<\/p>\n \u201cFor Joao Pedro, my understanding is that Chelsea have absolutely no intention of letting Joao Pedro leave the club this summer. Chelsea believe the new project that has to start this summer, 2026, has to start with Joao Pedro as a crucial part of that.<\/p>\n \u201cChelsea want Joao Pedro to stay. I already told you Barcelona love Joao Pedro. Deco already wanted to sign Joao Pedro when he was at Brighton. Joao Pedro is a player super appreciated by Barcelona, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Barcelona could go for Joao Pedro for a normal price, they would do that for sure, guaranteed. The conversations are real, but the chances? At this moment, Chelsea have absolutely no intention. Then summer is long. If anything changes, I will let you know. But as of today, Chelsea have no plans to let Joao Pedro go.\u201d<\/p>\n If Barcelona were able to sign Joao Pedro, he would be a strong fit for Hansi Flick\u2019s formation and style, according to data analytics firm SciSports.<\/p>\n Its Career Advice tool measures the strength of a transfer based on a wide variety of metrics, including development, game time, style and formation. It then calculates a Club Fit score, with the higher the figure the more suitable the transfer.<\/p>\n Barcelona only score 63 on this measure, but it does come with the caveat that this calculation still has Lewandowski in mind. The Pole is still rated by SciSports as the fourth-best striker in the world, which is why Joao Pedro\u2019s projected playing time is so low.<\/p>\n Clearly there are some huge obstacles to overcome if Barca are to sign Joao Pedro, but the signs are that he would be a strong fit for Flick\u2019s side if they could get the deal over the line.<\/p>\n Build The FIFA World Cup 2026\u2122: LEGO\u00a9 releases stunning football-inspired collection<\/b><\/p>\n Barcelona issue Marcus Rashford update as Man Utd open door for return<\/b><\/p>\n Transfer Rumours: Man Utd and Chelsea set to battle to sign breakout La Liga forward<\/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":" 15 May 2026 12:15 BST | 5 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Robin Bairner | Chief…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8809","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\/8809","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=8809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n Chief Editor<\/span>\n <\/div>\nJoao Pedro to Barcelona: The latest<\/h2>\n
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Chelsea\u2019s transfer stance<\/h2>\n
Jo\u00e3o Pedro in Barcelona<\/h2>\n
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The FootballTransfers app<\/h2>\n