Real Madrid now enter the picture to take away a certain Barcelona target from Africa | OneFootball

FC Barcelona has devoted a lot of time and effort into their scouting programs set all over the world. While certain regions used to get more attention from top clubs historically, some specifics of their scouting network have now been altered. In fact, Barcelona has now even dedicated special efforts towards a certain region.

When it comes to the continent of Africa, the Catalan club is one of the clubs that has a designated scouting network present there now. With their attention now diverted towards that region, they have been able to isolate and even sign some very promising players.

Mikayil Faye, Mamadou Mbacke, and David Oduro are all very promising African talents that had been acquired by Barcelona in recent memory. However, despite their efforts to secure the arrival of yet another 18-year-old African pearl that currently belongs to NK Kustosija in Zagreb, their latest attempt seems to have fallen flat.

That is because, according to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona have been met with the challenge of Real Madrid now also being interested in Baye Coulibaly, the defensive midfielder from Mali that the Catalan club also had an eye on since quite some time.

Coulibaly, despite primarily playing as a defensive midfielder, is also able to play as a central defender. For Real Madrid, he is a player that can be looked as potential cover for the now-injured Dani Carvajal, who suffered an unfortunate ACL injury in their last game.

Previously, Barcelona had even engaged and interacted with the player’s agents. While they initially saw him as a great young talent with huge potential, they ultimately backed away from attempting to sign him because of the African Cup of Nations, a tournament that would have kept him away from the club for another month either way.

Being an Under-20 international with his home country, the player has a good amount of international and club experience under his belt. While he is definitely a talented player, it would appear that Real Madrid put a different value and focus towards him than Barcelona are willing to do at the moment.