20-year-old Barcelona academy graduate wanted by La Liga rivals, talks already underway
In Xavi’s team for the Spanish Super Cup, there are 13 players out of 25 who have been a part of the youth setup. If Gavi weren’t injured, there would be 14, but he won’t be playing for the rest of the season.
Five of these young players (Inaki Pena, Ronald Araujo, Alejandro Balde, Oriol Romeu, and Sergi Roberto) have experienced the time at La Masia one way or the other, while eight of them are joining a competition like this for the first time and one of those newcomers is Marc Casado.
Casado debuted with the senior team during the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League tie against Viktoria Plzen, which was even before the last Spanish Super Cup. However, he wasn’t chosen to go to Saudi Arabia for the competition last year.
Although he’s been called up many times, he only got to play two more games this season in the Champions League, against Shakhtar Donetsk and Royal Antwerp.
Even though he’s highly regarded in the youth team, the 20-year-old has only been a substitute in senior team matches and has played for just 45 minutes.
So what next for him?
Casado is not having a great time at Barcelona and journalist Jose Alvarez via El Chiringuito TV has affirmed that Valencia might appear to be the rose in the gloom for the 20-year-old.
The La Liga club are very much interested in his acquisition and talks regarding a potential move have already begun.
It is to be noted that Casado’s ongoing deal with Barcelona runs out at the end of the season and although there is an option to extend it for another season, the interest he has generated across the country might tempt him to move away in search of regular first-team football.
A few weeks ago, we reported that several Spanish teams have set their sights on the 20-year-old and unlike last summer when he rejected several proposals, he might look for a way out.
Despite the fact that he is a natural defensive midfielder, Xavi has not utilised him a great deal this season even though Romeu has been struggling. As such, there is a chance that this Valencia move might pan out.
