 |
| BARCELONA introduced a newly purchased star, Philippe Coutinho in Auditorium 1899, Barcelona but will only be introduced to the media on this day. - Photo REUTERS |
BARCELONA: Philippe Coutinho will be introduced as the new star that Barcelona purchased today when coach Ernesto Valverde imagines the world's third most expensive soccer player will be able to adjust to the forces that also have a global star Lionel Messi.
The designer of the Brazil attack was in the city of Spain overnight to demonstrate a 160 million euro (RM769.2 million) transfer from Liverpool but will only be introduced to the media on this day.
"Coutinho is a player I think is capable of giving a lot of money to us," Valverde said.
"He's an important purchase."
Valverde admitted he was one stroke to include the 25-year-old into the army that has as great a star as Messi, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta.
"We'll see that I see him practicing at least a day before talking about it.
I've seen him play in various positions-on the right, left, center and wings.
"We will make an assessment but I certainly do not think he will play as a goal keeper."
Barca, the Spanish league's predecessor, killed Levante 3-0 at Camp Nou early this morning but Coutinho was not in the stands when the clubs took full advantage of resistance and not their new players.
Yet they still gave a pedestal to their arrival.
"Bem-vindo! Welcome! Benvingut! ¡Bienvenido! (Welcome)" Barca delivered a message to Coutinho for Twitter following a wave of hands and a video exposing his name written on the player's cast.
The purchase of Coutinho - which coined the release clause worth 400 million euros (RM1.92 billion) was the third biggest transfer in football.
His record has not been able to overcome Paris Saint-Germain with a world record of 222 million euros (RM1.06 billion) for the purchase of Neymar from Barcelona last year which also got French striker Kylian Mbappe on a contract worth 180 million euros (RM865.5 million) AFP