Levante's Etta Eyong rejects €30m move to hold out for Barcelona

Karl Etta Eyong has rejected a €30m January move to CSKA Moscow and is holding out for a transfer to Barcelona, Mundo Deportivo reports, with the 22-year-old Levante forward placing the La Liga champions above all other options in his summer plans.

Barcelona are in the market for a Robert Lewandowski replacement and have identified Atlético Madrid’s Julián Álvarez, Brighton’s João Pedro and Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane as their primary targets. The club’s internal budget for a striker stands at around €100m, though there is no certainty any of those three would be available at that figure, prompting the scouting staff to assess more affordable alternatives.

Etta Eyong was one such option earlier in the season. The Cameroon international caught Barcelona’s attention during a strong opening spell at Levante, the club he joined from Villarreal last summer, but a difficult second half of the campaign — during which he struggled to score — led the Catalans to move him down their shortlist.

Despite that cooling of interest, Etta Eyong has not given up on the move. He is reported to believe his time at Levante is already over and is determined to leave the Valencian club this summer. Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Stuttgart are also said to be monitoring him, but Barcelona remains his clear preference.

Whether that preference translates into a concrete offer depends largely on how Barcelona’s pursuit of their headline targets develops. Should Álvarez, Pedro or Kane prove unattainable within the club’s financial constraints, Etta Eyong could re-emerge as a realistic and significantly cheaper solution to their striker problem.