The pre-season is underway at FC Barcelona as the club starts its sporting preparations for the upcoming season. Along with the first-team players, a number of youngsters from the youth ranks have also been called up by Xavi to train in this pre-season camp with the first team.
According to Mundo Deportivo, one of the surprising names that has been called up by Xavi from the subsidiary for this camp is the youngster Fermin Lopez. The 20-year-old midfielder spent the last season on loan at Linares, where his growth and development received a clear and significant boost.
The youngster played in the third-tier Primera Federacion with Linares, where he made himself prominent by providing four assists and scoring 12 goals. This was a significant improvement on the number of goals and assists that he had gathered with Juvenil A in the season prior to that.
The player has seen his fortunes grow rapidly in the last few years. He did not have a clear place in Rafael Marquez’s team, but the club still gave him a contract extension till 2024. Now, the player is looking to get Xavi’s trust and become a part of the first team, and if he is unable to do that, he will still become an important player for the Barcelona B team.
In addition to his goals and assists, he also impressed with his attitude and humility at Linares. These attributes and characteristics invite comparisons to another former Barcelona player, Pedro Rodriguez, whose performances were also more pronounced when he was in the first team than when he was playing with the youth teams.
Eleven other players have been called up by Xavi in addition to Fermin for the pre-season camp, but these players, including Alarcón, Estanis, Lamine Yamal, Casadó, Prim, Unai, Guiu, and Fort have also been previously called up by Xavi on occasion to train with the first team. Other players like Mikayil Faye, Kochen, and Cubarsi will also be with the first team during this pre-season.
