At FC Barcelona, reliance on youth has always held a special preference, but even something inherently good can be overdone. Such has turned out to be the case with Barcelona youngster and Spanish wonderkid Pablo Gavira, more commonly known as Gavi.
The 18-year-old Golden Boy Award winner and current FC Barcelona number 30 has been overworked to an extreme extent this season, not too dissimilar to the case of Pedri’s deployment in the 2020/2021 season under Ronald Koeman, where the latter played a staggering 96% of games across all competitions that consequently left him heavily fatigued and thus had him go through multiple muscular issues as a consequence.
It would be wise for FC Barcelona to now practice more caution with Gavi and learn from their prior errors, as the young Spaniard has already accumulated a percentage of 94.73% across all competitions for club and country in regards to games played.
While an accomplishment from a certain perspective, it can also be looked at as a case of carelessness from FC Barcelona’s own point of view. While the youngster has thus avoided injuries, it would not be wise to test the extremes of that particular possibility.
Reportedly, Xavi Hernandez will opt to rest Gavi should FC Barcelona secure the La Liga Santander title early, and would then choose to play a rotated squad for the remainder of the games. Moreover, there are other issues around Gavi that must also be addressed, such as the registration of his new contract with La Liga.
As it stands, the Spanish league does not recognize or approve of his new contract in light of Barca’s financial situation and even had the player stripped of his newly procured number 6 shirt and had him reverted back to his previous number 30.
Despite continuous rumors that continue to link the youngster with Bayern Munich or Chelsea should his contract be unable to be registered and leave the player as a free agent, there are statements and hints of assurance from both FC Barcelona and La Liga itself that the player will end up getting registered undoubtedly and he will continue to represent the Catalans for years to come.
