{"id":8510,"date":"2026-02-24T00:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/24\/barcelona-sign-norwich-prospect-tavares\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T00:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:20:04","slug":"barcelona-sign-norwich-prospect-tavares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/24\/barcelona-sign-norwich-prospect-tavares\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona sign Norwich prospect Tavares"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published28 minutes ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Spanish giants Barcelona have signed Norwich City academy prospect Ajay Tavares. <\/p>\n<p>The 16-year-old had reportedly attracted interest from a number of European clubs and Norwich will be entitled to compensation, although the Canaries have not confirmed the financial aspects of the deal.<\/p>\n<p>Tavares, who first joined Norwich at under-12 level, was sent on as a substitute in a first-team pre-season friendly against Dutch club Volendam last summer when only 15, but he has not appeared in a competitive fixture at senior level.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Whilst we are incredibly sad to be losing a young academy player of Ajay&#x27;s talent, our overriding sense is one of immense pride,&quot; said Norwich sporting director Ben Knapper.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Ajay&#x27;s progress has been a testament to the fantastic work of everyone connected with our academy, who have impacted his journey and contributed to this wonderful achievement&#8230; and we couldn&#x27;t be prouder to see him take this step to one of the most iconic football clubs and academies in world football.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Tavares made his most recent appearance for Norwich&#x27;s under-18 team against Chelsea at Colney on 31 January. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;On an international level, he has represented England at under-15, under-16 and under-17 levels, and we&#x27;ve no doubt he&#x27;ll continue to make great steps for both club and country in the years to come,&quot; Knapper added.<\/p>\n<p>He is not the first 16-year-old to be signed by Barcelona from English football.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019, Louie Barry joined them from West Bromwich Albion, but he returned the following year when Aston Villa <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/51227815\">paid a fee of about 1m euros (\u00a3880,000) for the young forward.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>That was a year after Barcelona signed 18-year-old Marcus McGuane from Arsenal, with the midfielder joining their B side.<\/p>\n<p>McGuane returned to England in 2020 to sign for Nottingham Forest and has since played for Oxford United, Bristol City and Huddersfield Town.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/norwich-city\">Norwich City<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/championship\">Championship<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\">Football<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/norwich-city\">\n<p>Latest Norwich City news and analysis<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/programmes\/p02nrvhq\/episodes\/downloads\">\n<p>Listen to BBC Radio Norfolk&#x27;s The Scrimmage podcast<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona sign Norwich prospect TavaresImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Ajay Tavares has been playing for Norwich&#x27;s under-18 team this seasonPublished28 minutes agoSpanish giants Barcelon&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}