Official: Roma Sign Carles Perez from Barcelona

There's nothing wrong with clubs shooting for the moon during transfer season, but if we took every transfer rumor at face value then Roma seem to spend an inordinate amount of time chasing the proverbial white whale. While that's all well and good, more often than not it's a desperate search, as Roma end up landing the...shall we say, esoteric fish; not necessarily a trophy fish but an intriguing catch nonetheless. For example, how many of us were familiar with Marquinhos, Alisson or Cengiz Ünder before they came to Roma?

That they're able to find and develop such talent is credit to the quality of Roma's scouting network and negotiation teams. So, in the absence of Matteo Politano or Federico Bernardeschi, we should view Roma's newest signing, Barcelona's Carles Perez, in that same light.

With only a dozen or so senior appearances for Barcelona under his belt, Perez is a bit of an unknown—albeit intriguing—asset, one that Roma have been working hard to acquire for the past two weeks.

Given the depth and breadth of players produced by La Masia, Barcelona usually have the upper hand when selling their surplus prospects, so it wasn't terribly surprising when they tried to flex that muscle in the Perez negotiations. What was initially a €13 million loan plus mandatory obligation to buy was soon waylaid as Barcelona attempted to insert a variety of buy-back clauses into the deal, just as they did with Bojan Krkic several years ago, which, uh, didn't work out for anyone.

With both sides motivated to get a deal done, a compromise was reached: Perez will join Roma on a straight sale while Barcelona will retain a right to first refusal if/when Roma sells Perez.

The terms of the deal per the club:

The winger, 21, joins from Spanish side Barcelona on an initial loan deal – for a fee of €1 million. The agreement also includes the obligation to make the transfer permanent – based on the achievement of certain sporting targets – for a fixed initial payment of €11m.

The deal also includes a number of additional performance-related clauses, worth up to a maximum of €4.5m in additional payments. If and when the deal is made permanent, Perez has signed a deal with the club that runs until 30 June 2024.

Perez, a 21-year-old Spanish winger, is cut in the mold of Arjen Robben, your classic inverted winger. Perez debuted with Barcelona last season and has amassed 13 appearances and two goals in all competitions since then.

We'll have to wait and see where he fits in the rotation pattern, but Perez, along with Ünder and Justin Kluivert, gives Roma three young and incredibly gifted wingers.