Joao Cancelo has said that his performances for Barcelona this season will play a big role in determining whether he joins the Catalan outfit on a permanent basis during next summer's transfer window.
The Portugal international made the move to Barcelona on loan from Manchester City in the closing stages of the summer market, and he has impressed for Xavi's side thus far, scoring once in three appearances.
The La Liga champions do not have the option to sign the 29-year-old on a permanent basis next summer, but Cancelo is unlikely to represent Man City again due to the breakdown of his relationship with the English side's head coach Pep Guardiola.
Barcelona are expected to attempt to sign Cancelo in the summer of 2024, but the full-back has said that his focus is solely on impressing for his loan club.
"I want to perform here first. It's not because of these two games, which the whole team did well, with two convincing victories. First to perform, to win titles with this club, to be an important player in the team, and then to talk about staying or not," he told Mundo Deportivo.
© Reuters
"It will depend on the club, on how well I perform. In the end they measure you by your performance, if you don't perform, you don't stay. If you perform, they will want you. So I want to perform, work and enjoy this club.
"My family and all my friends know that I have wanted to play here for a long time, it is a club that has always excited me because my idols played here.
"Now, I want to show people the player that I am, lately I haven't been performing as well as I wanted to and I want to give my best to help this club get back to where it deserves to be.
"I'm very happy to be here, I've really enjoyed these three games, I have teammates who are helping me to adapt as quickly as possible, which is important. I'm playing with great players, which also makes everything very easy for me."
© Reuters
Cancelo has said that it was 'a risk' to leave Man City due to their success, but he was not able to turn down the chance to move to Barcelona.
"Yes, it's risky, but my life has always been a risk. I always like to take risks. For me they are now the best team in the world and coming here was a risk, yes, but it's Barcelona and when you get the opportunity from Barca you have to come," he added.
"I have to thank everyone at City, I've had the best moments of my career there so far, I had the chance to be in last year's FIFA World XI, which was another dream for me. And that's thanks to my teammates at City, the coach, Pep, and his staff, who are a very good group, very united and you can see that."
Cancelo debuted for the Catalan outfit off the bench against Osasuna on September 3 before making his full league debut against Real Betis last weekend, getting his name on the scoresheet.
The Portuguese, who has four years left to run on his contract at Man City, then played 76 minutes of Tuesday's 5-0 win over Royal Antwerp in the Champions League.
