MontenegrinCuler
Well-known member
Yeah really good stuff
At least one of them will surely come out good for us
At least one of them will surely come out good for us
FC Barcelona: Win of the youth system
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
Messi983
Senior Member
Agreed.
If we can sign one or two of the "best" (in our scouts perspective) talents from Ghana, Senegal and Mali (but hopefully will start to collaborate with academies from countries like Cameroon and Nigeria too in near future) every year then in 3-4 years odds are at least one of them will prove to be good enough to make it to the first team and others can be sold for a profit.
Only thing I don't like is we have to wait until these talents turn 18 before we can officially sign them. I understand that but if we discover a very talented 16 year old player and even have a verbal agreement with him (like we have with Ibrahim Diarra for over a year now) to join us we have no impact on how he'll develop. Maybe some of these kids are just too good for the level of competition they play against and won't improve much or even stagnate.
A bit worried about Diarra for example since we have little updates about him. Maybe you know that better. Does Academie Africa Foot play regular games against other academies in Mali or maybe from other African countries (would assume not as travelling costs are probably too high)? I'm sure he has played some games over the last year but on what level?
At least with Abdul Aziz we signed for Barca Atletic we knew he led his senior team to Confederation Cup (CAF version of Europa League) semi-final last season so he has played against some good and more experienced players.
If we could get these talents earlier to La Masia to train better and play alongside and against better players would benefit them. And there is also always a possibility we could potentially lose a player we consider to have "tied down". As long as contracts are not signed anything can happen.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
While you make good points, I actually love the rule for 2 reasons:
1- The law exists for a reason, the moment you get a 15 or 16 years old, or younger, here then he is basically a pro, moving for his career, when he should be child. Even Messi spoke how difficult it was. Let kids be kids. It will hurt some but it is best for the majority who won't actually make it.
2-It allow us to be more shrewd with our moves, now we are only looking for those 16+ years and bring them for Juvenil A. Rather than bringing kids were ton of things could go wrong.
We brought like a dozen kids from Eto academy, only Onana has made it. And we sold him for 150K, we probably got more from his sale to Inter as a parent club of him.
You get guys at the age of 16-19 you can select better.
We also collaborate with those academy, so I expect a guy like Diarra to be getting proper advices, diet etc in Mali, even if he isn't facing proper competition there
Great posts guys. We can atleast still bring these African players over for trials and extended training stints so waiting until 18 is not so much of wasted time.
Our worry will be when City Group see the light and decide to create an African Super team down there.
When I saw this thread buzzing I thought you guys would be talking of Nomoko who has been impressing at Spain U17 this past month and got a bit of media. Pedro Rodriguez, aka DRODRI is the captain.
Our worry will be when City Group see the light and decide to create an African Super team down there.
When I saw this thread buzzing I thought you guys would be talking of Nomoko who has been impressing at Spain U17 this past month and got a bit of media. Pedro Rodriguez, aka DRODRI is the captain.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Rules is that you can't sign someone out of EU under the age of 18, or a player from EU member country beside Spain under the age of 16. No age restriction for Spanish players,obviusly.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Fabrizio Romano is saying we signed both, no?
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