2023-05-01 08:00:44
Barcelona“At 15 I was playing in my neighborhood team.” Not just anyone says it, but Raphinha Dias, who knows what it means to sweat to make a living from football. With no sponsors in his country, he had to emigrate first to Portugal and then to France before going to the Premier League, where he managed to attract the attention of big clubs such as Barça, who last summer paid more than 60 million to sign him at the age of 25, 10 more than Lamine Yamal, the youngest debutant in history in the Barça first team.
This 15-year-old teenager raised between Mataró and Granollers, of a Guinean mother and Moroccan father, was the clear protagonist of the last minutes of Saturday’s game with Betis at Camp Nou. Xavi gave him a short break in place of Gavi, another precocious talent from La Masia. At the time of the change, the handshake between the two Barbamecs totaled 33 years—15 of the one and 18 of the other—. Minutes earlier, the athletic Joaquín, 41, left the field due to injury. Football stuff.
With the face and body of a teenager, Lamine Yamal received a roaring ovation from a stadium full of passersby before showing why Xavi Hernández has been leading him in first team training for days and why the almighty Jorge Mendes has paid off in advance to protect his career. In 10 miscalculated minutes, he was about to score and dared with a genius assist for Dembélé, another of the enticements of the final stretch of the comfortable duel with Betis.
“I told him to enjoy the historic moment, to try things. He is a special, differential player. He can be very important and we trust him,” said the coach, part involved in the management of a footballer as talented as he is conflicted. And with the professional debut in the sarró, everyone in Sant Joan Despí is very clear that now is when the maturing process enters the key phase. All together with the inclined Mendes negotiating with Laporta and Alemany a new millionaire contract that scares the interest of other important clubs. Lamine Yamal is the youngest debutant that Barça has had, but history says that this fact is not always a guarantee of sustained success over time. We analyze the four players who complete the Blaugrana top five.
Vicenç Martínez: 16 years, 9 months and 5 days
This first case of precocity did not go well. It stars this Barcelona ram, son of fishmongers. Formed between Collblanc and Racing de Sants, he arrived at Barça after the war. He made his debut in a classic in Chamartín against Madrid three months after turning 17. Despite his irruption, the club transferred him to Sabadell, where he played for two seasons and achieved promotion to Primera. At the age of 20, Barça brought him back, but regretted that he injured his knee. Once recovered, Martínez left for Nàstic, the first stop on a journey that took him to Linense, Igualada, Sant Andreu and Santboià, where he finished his career at just 28 years old. Then he would earn his living as a driver.
Ansu Fati: 16 years, 9 months and 25 days
The second footballer in this ranking today wears the number 10 that left Leo Messi free in 2021. Ansu Fati landed in the first team at the hands of Ernesto Valverde, who made his debut against Betis at the beginning of the 2019 season -2020. Six days later, the Spanish-Guinean, who skipped the step through the subsidiary, became the youngest goalscorer in the history of Barça in the League at Osasuna. Almost three years after that sweet moment, Ansu is not a starter at Barça and suffers from a decline in performance due to knee injuries and associated muscle problems. He is represented by Mendes, who is already looking for solutions for a change of scenery this summer.
Bojan Krkic: 17 years old
Recently, Ansu’s situation has been compared to that suffered by another young Barcelona prodigy. Bojan made his debut in the 2007-2008 season with Frank Rijkaard. In a context of collective decay, the striker from Linyola, La Masia’s top scorer, was an engine of excitement for the culerada, which turned him into an idol on the fast track. But between the passage of time, competition, the death of the novelty factor and mental health issues, Bojan ended up diluting himself to the point of leaving for Roma in 2011. That was the start of a decline that he ended up retiring at the age of 33.
Pablo Gavi: 17 years and 24 days
Better is the redoubtable Gavi’s current experience in the first team after Ronald Koeman made his debut in a face mask in a match against Getafe at the start of the 2021-22 financial year. With Xavi on the Barça bench, the Andalusian has consolidated an indisputable status between midfield and the false left wing. The only thing that can truncate his growth is his particular contractual circumstance, since he still plays in the League with a youth card even though he is already paid as a senior. If the club does not regularize his situation, he could end up losing him without receiving any transfer in return.
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