Real Madrid to beat Barcelona to sign Brazilian attacker, Barcelona to beat Manchester United and Liverpool to world-record signing and more: Transfer Round-up, November 19 2018

Barcelona confident of beating Manchester United and Liverpool to sign De Ligt

Netherlands v France - UEFA Nations League A

Quite a few clubs seem to be heading into this transfer window with quite a few defensive issues to address. Barcelona are perhaps the biggest name of them all. Now, as per Daily Mirror, Barcelona are leading the race to sign Matthijs De Ligt with Ajax asking £60 million for the 19-year-old thereby making him the most expensive teenage defender in the world.

Virgil Van Dijk had claimed earlier this week that De Ligt could very well be a transfer target for Liverpool. The report also credits Manchester United with an interest but goes on to state that Barcelona believe that they're now confident of beating the Premier League giant to the youngster's signature.

Calcio Mercato had earlier reported that AS Roma and AC Milan are also interested in De Ligt. But with Barcelona also interested, Matthijs De Ligt will want to follow the footsteps of the likes of Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens and go to Catalonia.

Barcelona consider De Ligt to be the ideal candidate to take over from Gerard Pique who is walking into the twilight of his career.