Hansi Flick has already started planning Barcelona's preseason, which will begin in July. Beyond the signing of Joan García and the imminent arrival of Nico Williams, Flick is strongly committed to the youth academy, convinced that the club's future depends on La Masia. Along these lines, he has requested that several young talents join the group from the very first training session.
The decision has the full support of Deco and the sporting management, who view the coach's commitment to combining youth and experience positively. This is not just a simple filler strategy, but a real opportunity for the academy players to show that they can compete for a spot in the first team during the upcoming season.
Ready for the preseason
In total, everything seems to indicate that eight players trained at La Masia will work under Flick's orders.
- Landry Farré, 18-year-old center back
- Jofre Torrents, left back with great potential
- Ibrahim Diarra, left-footed and direct attacking midfielder
- Guille Fernández, central midfielder just 17 years old (5 ft. 7 in., 17 years old) with enormous talent
- Toni Fernández, creative attacking midfielder
- Pedro "Dro" Fernández, playmaker with great vision
- Juan Hernández, versatile and offensive
- Jan Virgili, unbalancing winger
Each of them has been selected for their recent performance and potential. Many arrive after standing out in the Youth League or with Juvenil A, while others have caught attention for their physical and mental development. For Flick, preseason is not just a preparation stage, but an opportunity to discover profiles that can contribute right away, as happened in the past with Fermín López.
Diverse profiles, great potential
The selected profiles meet different needs of the first team: there are defenders with physical power, technical and offensive midfielders, and even wingers with dribbling skills. Guille Fernández's case is especially striking due to his youth, while players like Landry Farré or Jan Virgili could enter the rotation in the medium term if they keep developing.
Barça, which is still keeping an eye on the transfer market, is not losing sight of its youth academy: the sporting management sees room for some of them to stay during the season. The idea is for these young players to earn a spot. Flick wants to see them compete with the professionals and will make decisions once the first friendlies in July and August are over.