Next Golden Generation For Barcelona; Pedri & Gavi
Football has seen incredible young and talented players throughout its history. Each of them tried to show their potential, some succeeded, and some did not. Some did very well, some did not. Some became superstars, others remained regular footballers. Potential is perhaps the most valuable thing a young player can have in football. No contract and money are worth more than potential because money saves the day and potentially save the future. Today there are football players with incredible potential. But I think Barcelona’s two young superstar candidates Pedri and Gavi are the young talents that should be evaluated first.
With Pep Guardiola as manager, Barça has established an incredible dominance in Europe and La Liga. The Catalans won 3 Champions Leagues, 5 La Liga, 3 Spanish Cups, 4 Spanish Super Cups, 3 UEFA Supercups and 3 FIFA World Cups between 2009–2015. This domination had never been achieved by any team before, but the team that Guardiola systematized continued for about 4–5 years. The Barça hegemony did not come to an end with the departure of Pep, but the hegemony began to disintegrate with the breakdown of the Xavi-Iniesta duo. The farewell of Xavi, who is currently the coach of Barça, in 2015 meant the end of an era for Barça. One of the three most important names (Messi and Iniesta) in the big domination, Xavi was the most important part of the team’s mechanism. Later, Iniesta’s departure was the end of great days for Barça. There is talk of new possibilities in Catalonia today. There are hopeful words about a new potential hegemony. The reason for these rumors is exactly the two new star candidates of Barça, Pedri and Gavi.
The 2021–2022 season started badly for Barcelona. The farewell of Messi, the retirement of new signing Agüero and bad results made the season difficult for Barça from the beginning. After all these problems, the Barcelona management resorted to a change of coach and Xavi Hernandez, one of the former legends of the team, was brought instead of Ronald Koeman. Ronald Koeman may have been unsuccessful in general, but he realized an event that closely concerns the future of Barcelona. The most important contribution of Koeman was that he introduced names such as Pedri, Gavi, Nico and Baldé, who gave hope to Barcelona, to the A team. The Koeman era is over and the Xavi era has begun. Xavi Hernandez, one of Barcelona’s greatest legends, is now Barcelona coach. It is also a chance for Gavi and Pedri, who, like Xavi, started playing in Barcelona at a young age. But there is a more serious and big problem, Barcelona has been managed badly, especially in the last 5–6 seasons. The bad decision making habit in the club has become so chronic that even Laporta continues to make the same mistakes with new promises. I’m talking about mistakes like paying 400 million euros to the Coutinho, Dembélé, Griezmann trio, sending Messi free, losing 18-year-old Moriba to RB Leipzig. Are the same mistakes repeated for superstar candidates like Pedri and Gavi? A clear answer cannot be given. Different situations can be mentioned for Pedri and Gavi because they proved themselves very early. We especially need to talk about Pedri’s superhuman performance last year. Pedri played exactly 73 games last year, the young talent who played 52 games for Barcelona, also played for Spain in Euro 20 and the Olympics, breaking the record for the most games in a season. Imagine what Pedri can do in the future, who broke such a record at the age of 18.
Another record holder is Gavi. Gavi became the youngest player to play for Spain at 17 years, 60 days, breaking Angel Zubieta’s 85-year record. Gavi’s former coach, Franc Artiga, said of him, “It’s hard to find a player with this talent and speed of execution, he’s a hyper competitive person. One of the most competitive players I know. He plays with the mentality of winning until the last minute.” He tells us about Gavi’s potential. Ronald Koeman first assigned the young man to the game against Getafe on August 29. After the Getafe match, Gavi played against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. He became the second youngest player to be called up to the Spain national team just one month later.
No matter how much we write about these two superstar football players, some things are missing. Even someone who doesn’t watch La Liga follows Barça and La Liga for these two young talents. Even for an Atlético fan like me, Pedri and Gavi are exciting..
