Barcelona 'to activate £10.3m buy-back clause' to re-sign Gerard Deulofeu from Everton

Barcelona are reportedly ready to exercise their €12m (£10.3m, $12.7m) buy-back clause to bring Everton forward Gerard Deulofeu back to the Nou Camp ahead of the 2017-2018 campaign.

Mundo Deportivo says that the decision is already made and the current AC Milan loanee will become the La Liga giants' first summer signing of the summer. However Luis Enrique's replacement in the Barcelona dugout will have to decide whether he wants to keep the Spanish international in his ranks or sell him somewhere else for a profit.

Deulofeu, 23, was once considered as the next big thing to emerge from the prolific Spanish academy after breaking records both with the Barcelona youth team and the national team ranks – winning two consecutive Under-19 European Championships in 2011 and 2012.

The winger continued his impressive development in the 2012-2013 campaign after scoring 18 goals for the Barcelona B team in the second division of Spanish football.

However, Barcelona understood that he was still not ready for the first-team and send him on loan to Everton and Sevilla during the following two campaigns.

Deulofeu failed to impress the Catalans at the Andaluncian side and in the summer of 2015 the club decided to sell him to Everton – although keeping a buy-back option in order to have the control of his future.

The Spaniard's future at Barcelona looked over some months ago after he struggled to secure regular time under Ronald Koeman at Goodison Park.

However, he has managed to turnaround the situation completely since making a loan move to Milan during the January transfer window.

Julen Lopetegui recently called him for the Spanish national team as a result and last month Barcelona technical secretary Robert Fernandez suggested that the club were even considering re-signing him ahead of the 2017-2018 campaign.

"We have a chance to get Deulofeu back and that's good," Fernandez said. "I am very happy with what is happening. He was not playing at Everton but he has been called up by the Spanish national team following his good start at Milan. We will see. That's good news. The good news is that we have the option of paying €12m to re-sign him."

Mundo Deportivo says that the decision has been already made and Deulofeu will become the Barcelona first signing of the summer.

The departure of Luis Enrique is said to be key in the decision as the current manager was reportedly one of the main responsible in his departure to Juventus in the summer of 2015.

Yet, the next manager will have to decide whether he wants the Spanish international in his ranks to serve as a back-up for the MSN trident formed by Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

Mundo Deportivo says that Barcelona are ready to re-sign him for €12m because they understand that in the worst case scenario they will be able to sell him somewhere else for a profit.