Barcelona chief Deco has explained the decision to sign Athletico Paranaense striker Vitor Roque.

Roque is set to join Barce in January.

Deco detailed to Sport: "The case of Vitor Roque is a reflection of our strategy of anticipating. Maybe if you wait one more year, you could no longer sign Vitor for €30m plus €31m. With (Robert) Lewandowski you may think that you don't need to anticipate. You know he will last two or three more years, but we knew that one day we would have to go for a centre-forward.

“The scouting area is doing a great job. We use 'Big Data' and many platforms a lot, we have a very good team in that regard."

On their La Masia recruitment over the summer, Deco explained: “In grassroots football we have gotten ahead with players like Mika Faye, Noah Darvich, Mbacke… Barca is looking for young talent but I don't think we can rely on this alone.

"We have to find the balance. Barca cannot be a team that only looks for opportunities, that only signs players at the end of the contract, that only draws from the youth academy… It's a mix of everything."