Barcelona’s famous La Masia youth academy has produced top talents over the years who have become major stars in the first team squad.
There has been a brief lull in this trend for a few seasons, but recent years have seen the Blaugrana once again rely on the wealth of La Masia to regularly replenish the first team’s resources.
Ansu Fati, Gavi, Alejandro Balde, and most recently Lamine Yamal have all enjoyed great success at senior level and more are knocking on the doors of manager Xavi Hernandez.
One such talent who is on the cusp of breaking into the first team is young defensive player, Pau Kuparsi.
In fact, Sport reported that Xavi sees the 16-year-old centre-back as a mature player despite his age and has shown great confidence in him.
Cobarci has been with the first team regularly in recent weeks, and was named in the squad for the last two matches against Villarreal and Osasuna in the absence of Ronald Araujo.
Meanwhile, Kuparsi has also been named in the UEFA Champions League squad for the group stages and is very likely to serve as the team’s fifth-choice centre-back following the loan exit of Eric Garcia.
The report indicates that Barcelona’s technical staff was impressed by Kuparsi’s maturity and ability to defend, as well as his physical fitness.
At 16 years old, the Spanish talent has a lot to learn and develop, but Xavi already appears to have a lot of confidence in the teenager.
As such, he could turn into the fifth-choice centre-back behind Ronald Araujo, Andreas Christensen, Jules Kounde and Inigo Martinez, although Marcos Alonso would also be an option.