The stars of Barcelona that emerge from the youth academy continue to shine. The Blaugranes possess one of the most competent youth academies in the world in the form of La Masia, and they continue to benefit from the perks it provides. Even now, Barcelona depends on their academy to fulfill certain roles in the first team.
However, given the intense competition at the club, not every player manages to get equal chances. Certain starlets, despite how deserving they may be, do not always get an opportunity to shine with the first team. Yet, some players are simply unarguable in terms of their quality and merit.
One such player is Barcelona Atletic captain Marc Casado. The 20-year-old midfielder primarily specializes as a pivot and has been a great asset for Rafa Marquez in the subsidiary. However, despite making a few appearances for the first team, the Barcelona youngster is yet to debut in La Liga.
As highlighted by SPORT, Casado has only made three appearances for the Barcelona first team thus far. However, all of those appearances have come in the UEFA Champions League.
The first one came last season in Barça’s victory over Viktoria Plzen in the Group stage. Then came the latest appearances, one against Shakhtar Donetsk and the most recent one against Royal Antwerp.
Yet, despite those appearances in Europe’s premier competition, the player is yet to put on a show in La Liga. Even more interestingly, he has been included in the Barcelona squad list for various games on 17 occasions. Despite that rather significant number of call-ups, he is yet to be called into action in any game.
However, with Frenkie De Jong suspended for the upcoming game against Almeria, the odds for Casado to feature increase. He could, at some point of the game, be picked by Xavi to come on for Barcelona. Yet, he may not be the only one.
Ahead of the match, other youngsters also trained with the first team and could be included in the squad list. Ander Astralaga, Diego Kochen, Pau Cubarsi, Hector Fort, Aleix Garrido, and Marc Guiu were also included in the latest training session held under the orders of Xavi.
