Barcelona has taken six young people from Barca Atletic or their Under-19-side on their pre-season tour, while Hansi Flick wants to channel more talent in the pipeline to the senior team. With the competition for places in the club more and more feler, the ability to add young talent to his team is becoming increasingly limited.
The promise of those opportunities is the key to ensure that some of the most promising talents of the game are stuck – that is at least the case for Guille Fernandez. The 17-year-old creative midfielder is highly regarded in La Masia, but Sport says that he is not guaranteed to stay in the club this summer.
Fernandez would like to continue in the club, but wants to ensure that he has the necessary space to grow. Given 15 minutes action against FC Seoul, besides Cousin Toni Fernandez, he sits down with Agent Jorge Mendes to judge his situation, and his potential route ahead before he makes a decision about his future. That will mean that they sit at the club to hear their plans for him. If there is no clear plan to give him opportunities, then Fernandez and Mendes will find an exit in loan or a permanent deal.
Mendes already has a number of concrete proposals on the table for Fernandez and interest from some Europe's largest clubs. Neither Porto or Borussia Dortmund have made an offer, but both are interested and have a strong history of developing upcoming talent before players make the leap to the top of the game.
Manchester City is also connected to Fernandez in the past, just like Dortmund's greatest rivals Bayern Munich. The Spain Under-19 International is under contract until 2027, but only wrote that deal on the promise of a clear progression to the first team, that with a range of options in the central midfield already seems a difficult question from Flick and director of Voetbaldeco.