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Ansu Fati has scored 10 goals for Barcelona since joining the senior team in 2019
Pedri, Francisco Trincao, Sergino Dest, Riqui Puig, Ronald Araujo… they are far from being household names, but some of these youngsters will play a prominent role for Barcelona in Saturday’s Clasico clash with Real Madrid.
After a disastrous conclusion to last season, Barça’s new coach, Ronald Koeman, is trying to revitalize his team with a group of new talents who, this weekend, will try to make a name for themselves in the most outstanding match of all. .
Let’s find out more about them.
Old, slow, expensive … and gone
Too old, too slow.
That was the widespread and damned simple verdict on the Barcelona side after their humiliating 8-2 Champions League loss to Bayern Munich in August.
Incoming coach Koeman and the club’s hierarchy agreed, and the new campaign was preceded by downgrades from thirty-something stars like Luis Suárez, Ivan Rakitic and Arturo Vidal.
Instead, Koeman has turned to the youth, generously sprinkling his picks with a group of kids with the goal of infusing more energy and dynamism, sweeping the cobwebs from a side that had gone stale.
In part, it’s a symbolic move meant to show that the new manager has his or her own ideas, won’t automatically favor the established hierarchy, and has a genuine determination to revitalize a failing team.
But there was also a strong element of need, especially from a board perspective. The club is beset by deep financial problems, which recently announced debt of almost € 500 million, and the opportunity to replace high-income veterans with low-cost youth was too good to lose.
Then the young gunmen are on the scene. But who are they?
Fati shooting for stardom
The most used and impressive young man is a budding superstar who burst onto the scene last season, Ansu Fati.
The Guinea-Bissau-born forward, who joined the Barça youth squad at age 10, became the team’s youngest goalscorer when he scored against Osasuna last August.
The new campaign has started with more milestones: last month he became the youngest scorer in Spain, in a 3-0 win over Ukraine, and on Tuesday he became the youngest player to score two goals in the Champions League , with a goal against Ferencvaros.
Fati, who is still 17 years old, also scored three goals in Barça’s first two league games of the season, and is firmly established as the first-choice left wing in Koeman’s 4-2-3-1 formation.
Another youth team graduate that many fans would love to see become a similar automatic starter is Riqui Puig, a 21-year-old playing midfielder who broke through with Quique Setien at the end of last season but has had trouble convincing Koeman. , only making his first appearance with the new coach as a late substitute against Getafe last weekend.
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Pedri (left) is one of Barcelona’s youngsters who has been in the set-up with Ronald Koeman. Summer signings have an impact.
Barça appear to have found gold with the hiring of Pedri, a 17-year-old who was hired for just € 5 million (£ 4.44 million) from second-division Las Palmas, where he broke into the first team with 37 appearances la last season.
A lean but technically sublime offensive midfielder full of clever touches and deft changes of pace, Pedri has appeared in every game under Koeman.
His first start to the season came in last weekend’s defeat at Getafe, where he shone in an otherwise poor performance, and on Tuesday he scored his first goal for the club in the win over Ferencvaros. After Fati’s previous goal, that made Barça the first team in Champions League history with two 17-year-olds on the scoreboard.
Another summer arrival to play in every game this season is Francisco Trincao, a 20-year-old international from Portugal who signed for 31 million euros (27.53 million pounds) after scoring nine goals for Braga last season.
A strong and graceful player with an eye for goal, Trincao started against Ferencvaros midweek and has taken advantage of Antoine Griezmann’s continued struggles to become a serious contender to play on the right flank in El Clásico.
At the rear, there could also be a start for 19-year-old Dutch-born American international Sergino Dest. The versatile full-back arrived from Ajax last month for an initial € 21 million (£ 18.65 million) and had intended to make his way through the team as a substitute, but an injury to Jordi Alba has accelerated his progress.
Another emerging talent is Uruguayan defender Ronald Araujo (21), who has jumped ahead of Samuel Umtiti as the first substitute for Clement Lenglet and Gerard Piqué, giving a great performance when Lenglet was sanctioned for the recent goalless draw with Sevilla.
The truth is, with the exception of prominent Fati, it is still too early to judge for sure whether any of the youngsters will be good enough to become regular starters for a club of Barça’s stature.
But Koeman is certainly giving them opportunities, and producing heroics to win games against Real Madrid on Saturday would be the best possible way to show that they really belong.
Source: bbc.com
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