FC Barcelona is changing their approach to promising young players. With the arrival of Deco as sporting director comes a new strategy, with Fermín López as a prototype of the approach.
He was loaned out to Linares Deportivo as a teenager, a lower-league team. During that time, he developed well and arrived back at Barcelona with a higher level. Since then, he’s become a regular in the first team.
Not all youth players will be loaned out, because some will be so good already they can start playing with the first team right away. That’s the case for Pau Cubarsí and Lamine Yamal, for example.
The hope is to control promising players until they are at least 22, at which point they will either start contributing regularly to the first team, or they will be able to at least fetch a fee for their transfer out.
