voldemort

Icardi had been plying his trade for the youth team of Canary Islands side Vecindario, where his goal-scoring exploits led to many of Europe's biggest clubs showing an interest in the young striker.

He has been on trial at a number of teams in the last year and clubs including Sevilla, Valencia, Espanyol, Deportivo, Arsenal, Liverpool and Real Madrid had all made offers for him to join their youth academies.

Despite the large amount of interest, Icardi decided that Barcelona was the best option and he signed a contract with the club earlier today after their young development officer Pep Boada had shown him the training facilities and discussed the details of the deal.

Although Icardi is of Argentine origin, he also holds an Italian passport through his heritage and thus will not take up a non-EU slot if he progresses to Barça's first-team in the future.

His signing is somewhat of a coup for Barcelona, whose strong youth scouting network has seen the likes of Lionel Messi and Giovani Dos Santos join the club in recent years and go on to success in the first-team.

They will be pleased to have beaten Real Madrid to his signature, especially after their South American scout Sixto Alfonso described him as a player "that could create history if he carries on evolving in the same manner," when they were in the running last year.


source:goal.com