Barcelona ready shock £25m bid for Southampton defender

Barcelona are ready to step up their surprise interest in Southampton full-back Cedric Soares and offer the Premier League outfit £25m for his services in the summer, reports The Sun.

Luis Enrique will step down at the end of the season but Barcelona are still keen to sign a new right-back in the summer after failing to replace Dani Alves when he joined Juventus last summer.

Barcelona have been picking between Sergi Roberto and Aleix Vidal at right-back when playing a back four, while the latter has since been ruled out for the remainder of the season because of injury.

The reigning La Liga champions had been hopeful of luring Hector Bellerin back to the Camp Nou but the Arsenal full-back has since signed a new long-term deal at the club and his fee could price Barcelona out of the market anyway.

As a result, Barcelona have cast their eye at Southampton defender Cedric, and are willing to pay Claude Puel’s side five times what they shelled out to bring him to the club in 2015.

Only Antonio Valencia (39) has completed more crosses (excluding corners) than Soares in the Premier League this season (28).

For more stats on Cedric Soares, click here to visit his WhoScored player page