Barcelona have had some incredible footballers graduate from their La Masia academy over the years, with standouts being the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.
In recent years, Gavi has broken through into the first team, and Lamine Yamal is not expected to be too far behind him. The 15-year-old is seen as the “pearl” of Barcelona’s youth setup.
Despite his youthfulness, Yamal has trained with the first team on several occasions this season, but as of yet, he has not been included in a matchday squad by Xavi, although with the La Liga title almost sown up, he could get the opportunity in the remaining weeks of the season..
Despite the lack of squad inclusions, club officials rate him exponentially high, with MD reporting that their expectation levels are similar to the ones that Barcelona had for Messi and Iniesta, when they were breaking through at La Masia.
There is a danger to putting so much expectation on such young shoulders, and Barcelona will need to be careful in that regard. The club have a plan for Yamal’s development, the first step of which will be to get him to sign his first contract.
