Luis de la Fuente agrees with Xavi Hernández. This is demonstrated by his list of those called up for Euro 2024: Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí and Fermín López. Alejandro Balde, another of the young Barça players promoted by the now former Barcelona coach, would surely have also joined the Red expedition in Germany if he had not been in the infirmary. The full-back did not make his debut in the first team with Xavi, but he did establish himself at the Camp Nou, even putting a Barça legend like Jordi Alba on the bench. “The legacy we left with the youth players is one of the things I feel very proud of. “We have given the opportunity to very young players who I believe are the future of the club,” highlighted the Catalan coach. It happens, however, that while Yamal (16 years old), Cubarsí (17) and Balde (20) were already destined to wear the Red in the senior team, after passing through all the lower categories of the national team, Fermín (21) is a bet by Xavi Hernández.
Before Fermín jumped to the youth team, his parents visited La Masia. They were worried: they had heard that the Barça youth team distrusted the talent of his son. To their surprise, they found the forceful response from Jordi Roura, then Barcelona’s youth football director. “It wasn’t easy for Fermín. He was aware of the physical handicap he had but with his talent you had to be patient. There were those who did not believe in him and that came to him and his parents. I insisted to them that he would continue as long as I was at the club. That is why he had to work harder to gain physique. He has always been a hard worker,” Roura highlighted. He was not the only one who trusted Fermín. Before he left on loan to Linares last season, Xavi had already had his eye on him after the few training sessions that the youth squad had done with the first team. It was precisely that memory that motivated Xavi and his staff to take Fermín to Barcelona’s tour of the United States last summer.
Barcelona’s idea, at first, was for Fermín to join Rafa Márquez’s team in the reserve team. An idea that only lasted 47 minutes, in the only game that the youth player played for Barça Atlètic against Nàstic on the third day of the First RFEF. Since then, he has only participated in the first team. A presence that sealed his visa for the U21 team (six games and one goal for Santi Denia’s team this season) and now also allowed him to make the jump to De la Fuente’s list. “Fermín is a great discovery. We saw things in him: he had self-confidence, shooting, arrival… he has a lot of level and, if you believe it, he will be at Barcelona for many years,” said Xavi, about the youth player to whom he has given 42 games. Fermín responded with 11 goals (the highest scoring midfielder) and an assist. “My family and I will always be grateful to Xavi,” Fermín stressed. And so he made it clear. After scoring against Sevilla, he ran to the sideline to hug his coach.
“It’s a treasure,” Xavi said. In less than a year, Fermín jumped from Linares to the national team call for Germany 2024. A midfielder for De la Fuente who has one of the best midfielders in the history of Spain as godfather: Xavi Hernández. “I would take Fermín to a war,” Xavi concluded when he was asked about the possibility of Fermín joining Spain. It seems that he was right.
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