It has been an underwhelming season so far for Barcelona, but one of the big positives has been the breakthrough of several teenage talents. Lamine Yamal has lit up Spanish football over the last few weeks with a string of impressive performers, while Pau Cubarsi and Hector Fort have also impressed.
In the case of Cubarsi, he has looked like a seasoned professional over the last few weeks, with head coach Xavi Hernandez having started him against Real Betis, Osasuna and Alaves – Barcelona have won all of these matches.
Cubarsi looks set for a big future, and Barcelona are hoping to tie him down to a new contract in the coming weeks to ward off interest from the Premier League. Marca spoke to a couple of his former coaches, who spoke very highly of the 17-year-old defender.
Jose Lana, current Barcelona U19 coach: “Defensively, he’s the highest level in his generation. He’s a kid who doesn’t care about the environment or the level of his opponent, he doesn’t get scared of anything. He’s super gifted in the offensive game, with that ability to find the passes inside, hard, perfect passes. He doesn’t care about the stage and his performance is always the same.”
Jordi Roura, former director of youth football at Barcelona: “In that position we always look for him to be a technically gifted player, with a good output of the ball, but what caught my attention the most about Pau is that defensively he was a very good, aggressive player, with outstanding defensive concepts.”
Barcelona look to have a top talent on their hands with Cubarsi, although like with Lamine Yamal, it will be important that expectations, and minutes played, are managed over the coming years.
He’s amazing to watch. Unless you knew he had only just turned 17 you would think you were watching someone that had been playing at a high level professionally for a number of years. The club really have a gem with this one.
with due respect i’m highly optimistic of him capable of filling the void left by Busquet rather than Christensen, his audatious passes,vision and composure showcase his capability to play in that position.