{"id":610690,"date":"2022-03-08T12:58:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T17:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=610690"},"modified":"2022-03-08T12:58:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T17:58:58","slug":"barcelona-approach-ajax-defender-nouassir-mazraoui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/03\/08\/barcelona-approach-ajax-defender-nouassir-mazraoui\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona Approach Ajax Defender Nouassir Mazraoui"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona has officially made an opening proposal to Ajax defender Nouassir Mazraoui, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1501216497074642953\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a>. Mazraoui is set to leave Ajax as a free agent this summer and has also been approached by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/02\/18\/ac-milan-race-noussair-mazraoui\/\" target=\"_self\">AC Milan<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/03\/04\/borussia-dortmund-struggles-whats-wrong\/\" target=\"_self\">Borussia Dortmund<\/a>. The race is heating up for the player&#8217;s signature, but it seems as if Barcelona are pushing forward with their first contact. He isn&#8217;t the only player they&#8217;re trying to sign this summer, as they&#8217;ve registered interest with the likes of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/03\/02\/barcelona-pushing-for-ac-milan-midfielder-franck-kessie\/\" target=\"_self\">Franck Kessie<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/03\/07\/barcelona-set-to-offer-chelsea-defender-five-year-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Andreas Christensen<\/a> too.<\/p>\n<h2>Barcelona Make Move for Ajax Defender Nouassir Mazraoui<\/h2>\n<h3>The Player and the Fit<\/h3>\n<p>Mazraoui features as the starting right-back for Ajax. He&#8217;s been a main fixture on the squad since 2018 and was an integral piece during the club&#8217;s Champions League run in the 2018\/19 season.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot to like in Mazraoui&#8217;s game. One of the most attractive features, however, is his attacking capability as a defender. In 20 Eredivisie matches this season, the player has scored five goals and provided two assists. In seven Champions League matches, he also provided two assists. Statistics-wise, Mazraoui is in the midst of his best season yet. This coincides well with his contract being up this coming summer.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona&#8217;s full-back core includes Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, Sergino Dest, and Oscar Mingueza who isn&#8217;t always a full-back but can play the position. As is the case with Sergi Roberto, a midfielder, who can also play right-back.<\/p>\n<p>Alves is aging and his future is up in the air. Alba isn&#8217;t at the age of Alves just yet, but he&#8217;s not getting any younger. Dest is a promising talent but he can certainly improve. Although Dest is named a right-back, he can slot in at left-back with ease. Mazraoui fits as a young right-back who can learn under Alves.<\/p>\n<p>This last summer showed Barcelona&#8217;s financial woes. They&#8217;re making clear approaches with free agents, however, and Mazraoui is part of this plan.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"5auGqyPCQYN4lSrGKwikgg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1372419218\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'5auGqyPCQYN4lSrGKwikgg',sig:'iOr95MsJDhB9OSYjppC799bGm7tjD8UcKI_lVJWr6fk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1372419218',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barcelona has officially made an opening proposal to Ajax defender Nouassir Mazraoui, according to Fabrizio Romano. Mazraoui is set to leave Ajax as a free agent this summer and has also been approached by AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund. The race is heating up for the player&#8217;s signature, but it seems as if Barcelona are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2248,"featured_media":610700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8425,8426,1365,6,7188,28],"tags":[9174],"class_list":["post-610690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eredivisie","category-ajax","category-barcelona","category-la-liga","category-rumours","category-transfers","tag-noussair-mazraoui"],"modified_by":"Jordan Hackett, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}