Abidal: Trincao is a great player, we're not getting him to sell but to help him

Eric Abidal spoke to SPORT in an interview about the signing of Trincao.

"We anticipated the market early like we did with De Jong. They are different players but it's very easy to wait for a player to explode and then buy him later. He could be a risk because he costs 31 million euros, but if he's here 10 years then that's cheap. His potential at Barca we understand clearly, now in the future we'll see (if we were right). It's the same as we did with Arthur, we got in early.

"We did the deal early because it can get complicated. Teams try to do it like us and get in early. There were interested clubs and that's good because if he doesn't adapt, he'll definitely have exit routes. We're not getting him to sell but to help him grow. Trincao is a footballer with a lot of quality and he can arrive as a back-up, he scores goals and he can help us."

On Palmerias' Matheus Fernandes, who Barca also signed, Abidal added: "He's a player we've followed since 18 years old. We want him to adapt to Europe quickly so we left him with Valladolid. He should grow to come to Barca."