The risk Barcelona took with Yamal and Balde that could have cost them dearly

For decades, Barcelona have been accustomed to having very promising young players. In recent years they have had many players emerge from their youth teams who eventually became big stars, such as Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol, Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas.

Now they have them too, as there are many in the squad who in their short professional careers have proven to be very talented and are exciting the fans. Gavi, despite his young age, is already consolidated in the team and was even part of the Spanish National Team in the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The same happened with Alejandro Balde, who earned a place in the team last season, despite competing with Jordi Alba. And this season Lamine Yamal, only 16 years old, is having great performances that have caused comparisons with Messi.

But now a worrying truth has emerged: Barcelona were close to losing them this summer. This was revealed in an interview with Esport 3 by Enric Masip, advisor to club president Joan Laporta. "Lamine Yamal and Balde have been in a serious situation of leaving this summer because there is a club that tried to take them," he said, although he did not give details about which team was interested.

In addition, when asked specifically about Yamal, he said: "One of the people joining the organization, Bojan (Krkic), will be the link between youth soccer and the first team. These types of players have to be educated and cared for from La Masia so as not to 'burn them out'."

Everyone is talking about him

In just a few weeks, Lamine Yamal became a star of world soccer. His first few games at Barcelona were enough to show that he has an unusual talent and that, despite his young age, he is already in a position to contribute a lot to the team. And that's not all, as in the September international break he made his debut with the Spanish national team in the matches against Georgia and Cyprus, and even scored a goal.