Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger is interested in signing for Barcelona in the January transfer window, according to reports in Spain.
The German centre-back has fallen down the pecking order at Chelsea and is yet to play any game in the Premier League this campaign.
With the Chelsea boss, Frank Lampard favouring a partnership of Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma in his defence, Rudiger’s future at the club is now in huge doubt.
According to Sport, Barcelona want to sign a new central defender in the January window and Manchester City’s Eric Garcia is their number one target.
But, the report claims that if the La Liga giants are unable to bring Garcia back to the club, their alternative transfer target is Chelsea’s Rudiger.
Chelsea are believed to be willing to offload Rudiger having signed the 27-year-old in a £33.3m deal from Roma. And he is understood to be willing to join Barcelona before the campaign ends.
Speaking on his future with the blues last month, Rudiger told The Athletic: ‘The club didn’t tell me that it was absolutely necessary for me to find a new club and that they definitely didn’t have me in their plans for the next few months.
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‘I also turned down one or two options myself. I wasn’t prepared to pack it all in simply because I had been left out a few times. I enjoy living in London and like being at Chelsea.
‘Naturally, I looked at a couple of options in the two weeks before the end of the transfer window. ‘There was a possibility of a loan deal, in order for me to get more game time. Due to many different reasons and the shortage of time, nothing materialised in the end.’
Meanwhile, Barca also have Liverpool’s Joel Matip on their radar but the Reds are unwilling to part with the defender after the long term injuries to Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk.
Sport also claim that Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi is also being considered due to his experience in the Spanish league with Valencia.
