Now an agreement has finally been struck between the two sides, highly-rated midfielder Arthur will bid farewell to Grêmio on Monday according to reports in Brazil, although he cannot officially join La Liga giants Barcelona until July 15th due to Financial Fair Play regulations.
Originally refused long-term promotion to the senior side by World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari in 2015, the 21-year-old progressed from the Porto Alegre outfit’s B team over a year ago and in a remarkable turn of events now finds himself part of a multi-million Euro transfer, whilst considered the natural heir to club legend Xavi and one of Brazilian football’s hottest talents.
To bring Arthur to the Nou Camp, Barcelona had to cough up an extra three million Euros on top of the €30m that will be paid in three instalments and if performance-driven targets are met, the total value of the purchase could rise to €40m overall.
As suggested, however, the Goiâna native’s trajectory in eventually becoming a key feature of the Grêmio first XI and a Libertadores champion in 2017 wasn’t without its hardships. Arthur was a star of their youth teams, participating in the São Paulo Cup in 2015 which despite its name sees the young hopefuls of teams across Brazil compete with one another, and harboured hopes of making his professional Brazilian Série A debut post-haste as Grêmio passed through a spell of financial difficulties and were forced to fill the first team with various “base” players.
Scolari granted him that much but said no to taking Arthur on full time upon concluding that the playmaker wasn’t ready for regular outings at the top level off the back of a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Aimoré and just a full half of football. Back to the B side he went, where he would compete in minor competitions for the rest of the year and the whole of 2016 save for one outing in a 1-0 loss against Botafogo when the seniors gave him a 36 minute run out.
Space opened at the start of 2017, though. Arthur was given his first start and immediately shone in the opening weeks of the season whilst heralded as one of the revelations of futebol brasileiro when Grêmio took a reserve team to Guarani of Paraguay in the Libertadores and he won his maiden Man of the Match award in the return group fixture. Transforming into a fan favourite for his coolness on the ball, precise passing and sharp vision that also resulted in comparisons being drawn to Andres Iniesta and Thiago Alcantara, Arthur had by September caught the attention of Tite and earned a call up to the national team for two CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers against Bolivia and Chile.
He then led Grêmio to the Libertadores final, again deemed to be the best player on the park in the second leg despite coming off injured around the 50 minute mark in a 3-1 aggregate triumph over Lanus, which consequently meant Arthur missed the chance to contest the World Club Cup that saw Grêmio defeated at the last hurdle by Real Madrid in December. Around this time, Los Blancos’ bitter rivals Barcelona had already registered their interest and made a concrete offer at the turn of the year.
After much deliberation, improving on an original deal that wouldn’t have seen Arthur crossing the Atlantic until January 2019, Barcelona has succeeded in speeding up the process and landing their man with Grêmio to receive 5% from any future sales of a prospect already tipped to feature in Brazil’s Qatar 2022 plans.
By those behind the scenes at the Nou Camp however, it is hoped that the mainstay successors to Xavi and Iniesta have been found in Philippe Coutinho and his compatriot. On July 28th against Tottenham Hotspur, Arthur is likely to don the iconic Blaugrana jersey for the first time on a preseason tour to the United States in preparation for the upcoming 2018/2019 campaign.
