West Ham target Carlos Bacca emerges as new candidate to bolster the Barcelona attack

West Ham have received a new blow in the hopes to sign Carlos Bacca after reports in Spain claimed that Barcelona are considering joining the race to secure the Colombian international. Mundo Deportivo claims that Luciano Vietto remains the Catalans' priority to bolster the attack but they have the AC Milan striker as the back-up target amid suggestions that the Argentinian forward could move to Sevilla instead.

Barcelona have earmarked the signing of a number nine as a priority for the current transfer window following the arrivals of Denis Suarez, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Digne and Andre Gomes.

Vietto and Kevin Gameiro were said to be the two main candidates to make the move to the Nou Camp. However, recent reports in Spain have claimed that Barcelona could miss both as the Argentinian is now expected to move on loan to Sevilla, with the Frenchman making the opposite move to Atletico Madrid.

Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona have not given up completely in Vietto as they have an agreement in principle with Atletico Madrid of around €22m (£18m, $24m) to secure his services. However, they have identified Bacca as an alternative target should the Argentinian finally decide to turn down their proposal and move instead to Sevilla.

The news would be a major blow for West Ham as the Hammers have been pursuing Bacca since almost the beginning of the summer. Nevertheless, the son of joint-chairman David Sullivan confirmed on Twitter last week that they were only waiting a response from the player to join them after having agreed a deal with Milan to lure him to London. Joint-chairman David Gold later also confirmed the news when questioned about Bacca, claiming that "a deal has been done with his club, it's now up to the player".

However, the 29-year-old looks to have different plans as he has claimed several times that his desire is to play in a Champions League club instead.

Indeed Mundo Deportivo believes that Barcelona's biggest competitor for the Colombian international would be Napoli as the Serie A giants would be ready to pay around €20m to secure his services to replace Gonzalo Higuain.

The Spanish publication, meanwhile, claims that Besiktas number nine Mario Gomez is also in the La Liga giants' radar but it looks that the German international will move instead to Borussia Dormund.