Vitor Roque: Why Barcelona have spent €35m on Brazil's 'new Ronaldo'

Every year, a wealth of top teenage Brazilian talents move to Europe, and they come in a similar mould. Usually immensely skillful, quick, and promising, all of them are swiftly boxed into a comparison with a Brazil legend. A lot of them prove to be inaccurate, not least because very few players reach the heights of Neymar, Ronaldinho, or Ronaldo - some of the most common associations.

But the latest one perhaps has a bit more of a likeness to a legend than some of those before him. Indeed, Vitor Roque, fresh off being announced as a new signing at Barca, shares a past freakishly similar to that of Ronaldo, and certainly evokes memories of R9.

Like Ronaldo, Vitor burst onto the scene at Cruzeiro as a teenager and netted his first goal as a 16-year-old. The traits are familiar here, too. Roque is very direct, but can still bust out his own array of Cruyff turns, stepovers and sharp cuts — all while having the core strength to shield the ball.

But he cannot actually be Ronaldo, so who is Vitor Roque, and why are Barcelona ecstatic to have beaten some of Europe's best teams to his signature?