Barcelona is seeking to renew the contract of Hamza Abdelkarim, the young team player, following his outstanding performance during the pre-season for the new campaign.
The Spanish newspaper dedicated its cover, published this Saturday, to Hamza Abdelkarim, the young forward of the Catalan team.
It wrote on the cover: "Hamza.. For now"
The powerful 18-year-old Egyptian forward is winning the trust of Hansi Flick after delivering a great pre-season. While no new striker has arrived yet, Hamza is considered one of the options to lead the team's attack in the league opener against Elche.
Barcelona is preparing to face Elche tomorrow, Sunday, in the second round of the Spanish league, followed by a match against Athletic Bilbao next Thursday in a postponed game from the first round.
The matches for Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid were postponed due to their players' commitments to the World Cup and to ensure they receive a larger rest period in accordance with regulations.
The report indicated that Barcelona intends to significantly increase the release clause in Hamza's contract from 15 million euros to 150 million euros upon renewal.
The report emphasized that Barcelona is working on this matter, but it has other more urgent priorities before the transfer window closes. The club wants to renew Hamza's contract, but the deal is not expected to be completed soon.
In the same context, two African players who previously represented Barcelona praised Hamza's performance. Cameroonian Jean-Marie Dongou, a former Barcelona player, told the "Sport" newspaper: "Hamza is a player with a natural goal-scoring instinct and excels in playing inside the penalty area. His goal-scoring movements are of a high caliber, although he still needs to improve many aspects of the game, as he lacks some automatic movements."
For his part, Senegalese Keta Baldé, a player for Italian club Monza, said: "I was told last year that Barcelona signed an excellent Egyptian striker, and I followed his news and found him to be a very interesting player."
He added, "If Barcelona cannot sign Alvarez, I would choose Lautaro and keep Hamza as a backup to gradually develop himself."
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Barcelona's name has also been linked with signing Inter's striker Lautaro Martinez, amid the complications in the Alvarez deal and Atletico Madrid's refusal to let their star leave for their direct rival in the Spanish league.
Hamza Abdelkarim played five pre-season matches and scored four goals, ending the pre-season as the team's top scorer.
Hamza scored two goals against Birmingham City, one goal against Basel, and one goal against his former club, Al Ahly.
