Barcelona Considers Gyokeres as Alvarez Pursuit Stalls

Barcelona’s hunt for a new No. 9 is starting to twist. With their push for Julian Alvarez hitting a wall, eyes in the Camp Nou offices are turning towards Viktor Gyokeres.

Spanish journalist Jose Alvarez Haya reports that movement around the Arsenal striker is expected in the coming hours, with Barcelona ready to probe the Swede’s situation. He is not the headline act of their plans, not yet, but he has moved firmly into the frame.

Alvarez remains the dream. The Argentine has been the central name on Barcelona’s shortlist throughout this window, the forward they see as the ideal fit to lead their attack. But there is one major problem: Atletico Madrid.

The Rojiblancos have shut the door. They are not just rejecting offers, they are refusing to even sit at the table with Barcelona over their star forward. That hard-line stance has turned what was already a complicated pursuit into something close to a dead end, at least for now.

So Barcelona have been forced to scan the market again.

Lautaro Martinez’s name surfaced. So did Sporting Lisbon’s Luis Suarez. Both were floated last week as possible solutions, both quickly cooled as realistic options. The list has shortened. That is where Gyokeres comes in.

Fresh from a mixed first year in England, the 26-year-old is now the latest striker under serious consideration. According to Haya, Barcelona are preparing to move quickly to understand Arsenal’s position and the player’s willingness, testing whether a deal is even feasible this late in the window.

For the moment, the Catalan club have not walked away from Alvarez. That door, however narrow, remains technically open. But with Atletico’s stance unyielding and the clock ticking, Barcelona are clearly bracing themselves with alternatives.

Gyokeres arrives in this conversation with a strong reputation and a few question marks.

Arsenal paid around €70 million to bring him from Sporting Lisbon last summer, after he tore through defences in Portugal and established himself as one of Europe’s most prolific centre-forwards. Expectations were enormous when he landed in north London.

His first season in the Premier League did not collapse under that weight, but it did not explode either. Gyokeres finished the 2025-26 campaign with 21 goals in all competitions for Arsenal — a solid return, yet short of the outrageous numbers he posted in Lisbon.

There were stretches when he looked every bit the ruthless finisher Arsenal thought they had signed. There were also spells when he drifted out of the XI, no longer the undisputed starter, and doubts grew over whether he could dominate at the same level outside Portugal.

That is the version of Gyokeres now being studied in Barcelona: a powerful, proven goalscorer on one side of the ledger, a very expensive forward still to fully convince in England on the other.

Barcelona must decide quickly. Do they keep waiting for an Atletico stance that shows no sign of softening, or pivot decisively towards a striker who might just need the right stage to explode again?