Xavi Hernández’s message, at times confusing and contradictory, has a common thread: his legacy. “We have given the opportunity to very young players who I believe are the future of the club. It is one of the most positive notes, not only from me, but from the sports structure and the staff”, emphasizes the Barcelona coach. Xavi has made 16 youth players debut in the first team, although no one attracts as much attention as Lamine Yamal (Barcelona, 16 years old) —He has flashes that can remind us of Messi, but let’s not compare him with Leo, who is a bitch to Laminate. “We are talking about the best player in history,” asks the Barça coach. Xavi’s big bet, according to the sports management, is Pau Curbasí (Girona, 17 years old).
“In other positions, due to the planning that was done in the summer, Xavi has had no choice but to pull from the youth team,” they explain from the sports area. “However,” add the same sources; “It is not the same with Cubarsi. In defense he did have other options. There are four centrals. There are Araujo, Koundé, Christensen and Iñigo Martínez. And Xavi has trusted Pau.” After a brief stint in the Girona youth academy, the center-back grew up at La Masia. He does not lose, in any case, the character of peasants that his idol Carles Puyol took to the extreme, nor does he hide his delicacy with the ball that elevated another symbol of Barcelona fans like Gerard Piqué. “Pau gives us many things: ball delivery, aggressiveness, he defends well. Everyone points out that his footwork is very good, that he is, but he is a kid who doesn’t lose a duel. It is a matter of attitude and personality. He plays with a determination that is wonderful,” Xavi praises him.
To Cubarsi. A cold guy and little friend of praise like Lewandowski put the Girona defender in the clouds. “It has been a long time since I have seen a center back, especially at that age, breaking lines with that ball delivery and with such calmness,” highlighted the Polish forward, who usually suffers the young center back in training. In La Masia, in any case, there is something that surprised more than his football ability: his personality. Cubarsí aspires to study economics after finishing high school. He is also a fan of the NBA and often helps in the Fusteria Cubarsi, the family business. So far, more or less normal. But Pau doesn’t like PlayStation. “What child ignores the consoles?” they remember, with fun, in La Masia. Captain of most of Barcelona’s youth teams, Cubarsí has exactly what the first team locker room was missing: personality.
“How many truly leading players are there in today’s football?” they asked in the offices of Barcelona’s sports management. When they were designing the squad for the 2023-2024 season and Cubarsí was one of the bets for Barça Atlètic, Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, then Barça’s director of football and technical secretary respectively, were looking for a leader for the locker room. A role that the Barça group had lost a long time ago, probably since Mascherano left the Camp Nou in the winter of 2017. “A guy who is capable of shouting three times and making the coach’s job easier,” they talked at Joan Gamper. . In the past, neither the silent Messi and Busquets, nor the fun-loving Piqué, were able to activate the group in bad times. Few examples are as significant as the successive eliminations in the Champions League (3-0 against Roma in 2018, 4-0 against Liverpool in 2019 and 2-8 against Bayern in 2020). At present, Sergi Roberto and Ter Stegen, not even the aspirational Araujo, could not achieve it.
The problem, in any case, for Alemany and Cruyff was the difficulty of the profile they were looking for. “Who does Madrid have? To Nacho? He doesn’t play,” commented a sports management employee. “And Atlético? To Koke? He is not a leader,” he insisted. Then, a name appeared that had been lurking in Barcelona’s technical secretary for a long time: Iñigo Martínez (Ondarroa, 32 years old). The first time that the center-back appeared in the Barça orbit was in 2017. Coincidentally, when Mascherano was still serving as leader in the Barça locker room. But, at that time, the sports management led by Robert Fernández decided to bet on Piqué, Umtiti, the Argentine and the emerging Yerry Mina for the Barça defense. Iñigo, then, changed Real Sociedad for Athletic Club. But neither the center-back forgot about Barça nor did Barça forget about the center-back.
“The profile we need is that of Iñigo Martínez. He is a rooster, an old-fashioned centre-back. A Godín”, Alemany and Cruyff then resolved. And Iñigo complied. Injured, he jumped from the stands to the locker room at halftime to harangue his teammates about the repeated failures of Xavi’s team during the campaign and got off the Spanish team plane to accompany Gavi from Valladolid to Barcelona when the Barça youth player broke down. the knee in La Roja’s duel against Georgia last November. “Iñigo is a natural leader, a guaranteed footballer. He wins duels, he gets the ball out. It was a request of mine, together with the sports area from last year,” explains Xavi.
While in the current sports area led by Deco they are wondering what to do with the high contract of a leader with Iñigo, they are already exploring a Lamine Yamal formula to tie Cubarsí (a first contract until he is of age and then extend it with another until 2030 that shield it with a termination clause of 1,000 million). The doubts between Cubarsí and Iñigo jump from the offices to the grass, especially to decide who stops Osimhen this Tuesday against Naples (9:00 p.m.), in a key duel, surely the most important for both Barça and Xavi in what remains of the campaign, since the ticket to the quarterfinals of the Champions League would water Sant Joan Despí with football and economic peace. “You will know tomorrow. I will not give clues to the rival. And I haven’t told them either. Whoever plays, there are guarantee centers to do well,” said Xavi. And, since Koundé is no longer fighting on the side and there is no one to move Araujo from behind, Xavi is torn between the experience of Iñigo Martínez and the youth of Pau Cubarsí.
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