Several players from the FC Barcelona academy have gotten chances to impress the new coach, Hansi Flick, in this pre-season. Some of them have been highly impressive, with Pau Victor and Marc Bernal putting in some stand-out performances.
Another player who has caught the eyes of the fans is the defender, Sergi Dominguez. He has emerged as one of the sensations in the Barcelona squad during this tour of the USA and has got a lot of minutes from Flick.
The young defender was one of the players who spoke to the media after the last friendly against AC Milan. As Mundo Deportivo has reported, Dominguez had a lot of confidence in La Masia, and believed the future of the club could be closely linked to the academy:
“La Masia can be the future of the club. It’s always evident that when players like Lamine, Cubarsí, Fermín come up, they deliver if given confidence.”
It is not always easy for youngsters to settle in with the first team. But Dominguez told the reporters that “the veterans have helped us a lot”, as he gave the more established players the credit for helping the youngsters settle in with them.
With the performances he has put in in the pre-season, he can fully expect to get some attention from the new Barcelona coach. In this regard, he also told the media that “Flick hasn’t talked to me; if he has to talk in Barcelona, let him talk”.
Still, he did not have too many expectations about being called up permanently to the first team. When asked whether he will go to the first team or remain with the reserves, he said: “That’s up to the club. I will be ready wherever they need me”.
But he ideally wanted to have the same importance in the team as another young defender: “I hope I can do the same as Cubarsí.” Lastly, he named one former and one current Barcelona defender among his three ideals: “When I was young, it was Piqué, and now it’s Van Dijk and Araujo.”
After this pre-season, Barcelona fans will be quite excited to see how Dominguez’s future pans out. But hopefully, he would be able to reach the same heights as his ideals and become a highly decorated player for the Blaugranes.
