Barcelona close loan deal for Brazilian defender Marlon Santos

Barcelona have closed the deal to sign Marlon Santos on loan with an option to buy the defender in the future. 

The Fluminense centre-back will join Gerard Lopez's B team, although the club feel he could play for the first team in the medium-term. 

Marlon was close to moving to Spain last season when Fluminense were in talks with Villarreal. 

Both the Brazilian club and the player, who could take part in pre-season with Luis Enrique's team, had been keen to arrange a move to Europe.

His signing has roots in another deal which didn't go through. Barça had an option to sign Gerson, for which they'd paid 3.2 million euros for, but he ended up signing for Roma. 

In exchange, Fluminense gave Barça a preferential option on several of their other players. 

The first was Robert Goncalves, who signed on loan in January, but has since seen his loan cut short after failing to impress. 

Now it's Marlon's turn, who joins on loan with an option to by for five million euros included. Therefore, if Barça decide to do the deal, they will only have to pay 1.8 million euros. 

Sources close to the player have confirmed to SPORT that he will travel to Barcelona next week to finalise the details, including the possibility of participating in pre-season with the first team. 

Marlon has represented Brazil at various levels. He's not played for Fluminense regularly this season as they have preferred defenders with more experience.