The success of FC Barcelona as it stands today is all thanks to the club’s most prominent youngsters. La Blaugrana have always been renowned for their elite youth talents, and that detail remains consistent today as well. After all, Barcelona continue to do their best to preserve their rich history.
This latest batch of young talents, however, is something truly nothing close to being ordinary. Barely 17 years of age, many youngsters currently playing in the first team are not even of legal age as of yet. Yet, while they may not be adults in their normal lives, they are game-changers for one of the world’s biggest clubs.
The likes of Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, and now even Marc Bernal are seen as the poster boys of Hansi Flick’s Barcelona. In the case of Yamal, he has already been handed the number ‘19’ as a gesture of faith given that the same number used to belong to the legendary Lionel Messi at one point in his Barcelona career.
Now, with Marc Bernal, the club has decided to do something similar as well. Having given the player the number ‘28’ for this season, as pointed out by Mundo Deportivo, it is only the latest development and observation that links him to the legendary Barça pivot, Sergio Busquets.
This number, one that Busquets himself wore when he first made his debut under Pep Guardiola, allows Bernal to be the one to carry the great legacy that Busquets has left behind. While there may still be a long way left to go for the player to even come close to said legacy, he already shares many stylistic similarities to his predecessor.
Both players are not known or remembered for their speed or acceleration, but rather for their understanding of the game and their composure on the ball. They allow the best versions of their teammates to thrive while also being the players who dictate the tempo of the game.
Even physically, the young 17-year-old pivot has a similar physique to Busquets. Both players possess a tall height but do not exactly have the most physically imposing builds, yet they continue to dominate opponents through better reading of the game irrespective of how physically dominant their rivals are.
