Barcelona are considering a move for Chelsea star Jorginho next summer when he could be available on a free transfer.
The 30-year-old Italy international has just 10 months to run on his Stamford Bridge contract and, unless he agrees new terms in south-west London, he will be available to talk to overseas clubs from January.
Barcelona are looking at potential replacements for Sergio Busquets, who turns 35 next summer and will also be out of contract then.
And the Brazil-born Blues ace is seen by Nou Camp bigwigs as someone who ticks all the boxes to fill the void Busquets will leave.
The fact Jorginho will be available for nothing if he allows his contract to run down at Chelsea is also a massive plus-point for the Catalan club given their ongoing financial issues.
Jorginho joined Chelsea from Napoli for £57million in 2018.
He had a tricky relationship with supporters during Maurizio Sarri’s reign but has cemented his reputation since the manager’s departure.
Along with Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante, he has been a key cog in central midfield but he could well be on the move at the end of the season.
Much will depend on new boss Graham Potter’s vision for the future at Chelsea and whether or not he feels Jorginho will have a major part to play in the way he wants to take the Blues.
Speaking before the midweek draw with Salzburg in the Champions League, the Euro 2020 winner admitted that the squad were "surprised" that Thomas Tuchel was replaced by the Englishman.
“It was a surprise of course for everyone. But what has been said between players, will stay there. I’m sorry," he said.
“Of course there is talking around what happened, but now we have games coming and life is quick so we don’t have time to keep thinking again and again. We talked, but now we need to concentrate and focus on what we need to do.
We tried what we could to try and do our best.
“But unfortunately it wasn’t working anymore and the new challenge is to rebuild that confidence because Chelsea are a big club and we have a lot of work to do. To do that we all need to be working in the same direction.”
