Barcelona star Phillippe Coutinho chooses Portuguese citizenship | OneFootball

The current rules of the Spanish Football Federation dictate that no Spanish club can have more than 3 non-EU players in the squad.

Barcelona fulfilled that quota by signing Yerry Mina (Colombia), Philippe Coutinho (Brazil), and Paulinho (Brazil) last season.

However, with talented young midfielder Arthur from Brazilian club Gremio coming into the club, the Blaugrana have already moved to send Paulinho back to Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande after Mina’s spectacular World Cup convinced the Catalan side to keep him aboard, for now.

Philippe Coutinho, Brazil’s brightest performer in Russia, is reportedly ready to help his club by applying for Portuguese citizenship.

The former Liverpool playmaker, who is also linked to PSG, is currently eligible for Portuguese citizenship through his wife Aine, who is Portuguese.

Coutinho could have already applied for citizenship three years ago per Portuguese law, however, he has probably found the right motivation to do so now.

Leo Messi (Argentina) and Luis Suárez (Uruguay) are already EU citizens. The Argentine captain qualified for Spanish citizenship back in 2015 due to a Spanish great-grandfather, whereas his Uruguayan team-mate obtained Italian nationality, thanks to his wife Sofia just after joining Barcelona in 2014.