La Masia is back on top, as Barcelona are easily producing the finest prospects in world football, assembling a star-studded lineup where the majority of the key players are homegrown talents.
Gavi and Pedri have been anchoring the midfield for the past couple of seasons, Alejandro Balde was a massive breakout star at left back in 2022/23 when Barcelona last won LaLiga, and both Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi emerged as legitimately two of the best players in LaLiga in their respective positions.
Yamal, in particular, was a revelation, dominating the competition at Euro 2024 as a key player for champions Spain. Both Yamal and Cubarsi are just 17 years old, so, in theory, Barcelona have two world-class players on their hands for the next 15 years.
Cubarsi and Yamal are so good, in fact, that CIES performed a study on all the teenage footballers in the world, looking at the number of matches they played and adjusting for the level of competition they have faced.
Based on these results, Yamal and Cubarsi are the most experienced teenagers in world football, beating out Real Madrid forward Endrick and PSG midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery for the honors.
Yamal unsurprisingly ranked first. Barcelona have such an incredible foundation over the next decade despite all the issues in their past, and Yamal and Cubarsi will be at the forefront of that. Sooner rather than later, the Blaugrana will be back on top of the Champions League with these two taking center stage.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.
