There is a statistical study floating around here. It lists youth players who play first team football for the club their at and all other clubs in Europe. I hope someone can post and pin it somewhere. If I remember correctly Barcelona has the most youth players playing first team football most for team other than Barcelona, and I think Monaco and a few other french teams were up there too. I truly don't believe De La Fuente will play any significant time with Barcelona first team but I do think he will play first team football for another top team in Europe.
Goooolazzoo de @konradjr! Santos 0-1 Juvenil B. #FCBMasia #MundialClubesJuvenil pic.twitter.com/a0K0TQiPY2— ■neurophate (@neurophate_) May 31, 2018
Konrad made La Masia's Top 5 goals of the week feature. Slashing run down the wing, cutting inside past a defender, and sliding it past the keeper.
I would say that many of the players don't pan out at all, but their rate is certainly higher than equivalent teams. Let's look at their UEFA Youth League winning squad from 2014; many of these players are 22 now. Still a little early but it's clear to see their trajectories. Of the 17 players from the final: 1 is playing professionally in a top league: Munir El Haddadi for Deportivo Alaves on loan from Barcelona. 2 are still with Barcelona B: Sergi Palencia and Rodri Tarin 1 is a regular starter with a second division team: Adama Traore 8 are with reserve teams in Spain or in England, but many of those are seeing very limited minutes and are probably nearing the end of their careers. 1 plays in the Chilean B league on loan from the Argentinian Arsenal The other 4 are playing in very low level leagues. Only one or two of those players would be considered USMNT level even in our rebuilding state. Academy success rates, even at La Masia level, are pretty low. Even the starters in Juvenil A have <10% chance at making it in a top league.
so we need to more heavily populate these top academies if we hope to produce a starter in one of the world's top 2 or 3 clubs?
Thanks for posting. Two things, according to the piece, I did not know: He reportedly made several appearances with Juvenil A He has a Spanish Passport.
I think you're missing a great deal of big picture facts when it comes to development. -Top clubs in Europe are good because they are in Europe specifically Spain, France, Germany attracting majority of Spanish, French, and German youngsters. Much development happens way before they get to Barcelona, Lyon, and Rennes. -In a sense it's the whole country developing these top players with the clubs being the finishing school and getting the credit. -Top development clubs have top players because they recruit top youth players from other clubs.....continuously -They are at an average of 4-5 youth clubs before they get to the top clubs. -They drop and pickup dozens of young players every year, at every level. -They occasionally cherry pick top players from other countries but the numbers dwarf their domestic talent -Their domestic talent is so good there is no reason to spend money traveling the world trying to find Denmark, China, or US top players. -They find a few but in no measure is it in significant numbers -The US structurally can't send top players to Europe because we're not in Europe -We don't have top players talent wise -But more importantly FIFA restricts minors under the age of 18 from going from one confederation to another -That results in the vast majority of US players who are unable to travel to European Academies until they are 18. -Way too late to significantly improve that talent to world class levels -The few who have a UEFA passport and can leave by 16 and those few at 18 who go when they go have shown talent but not in any way close in numbers to the top teams like Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, Germany etc. -The only way for the US to significantly improve our talent is to a better job of developing our soccer culture so it permeates more people, fans, and kids and then improving our domestic infrastructure. -We can't rely on other countries to develop our players because our players can't grow up and develop in those soccer cultures of foreign lands. We need to do it.
His father is from the Canary Islands which is an autonomous community in Spain. I believe his second nationality is how he ended up being able to enter Barcelona's youth academy.
Where was that mentioned? The only thing I've seen so far on his background states that his parents are from Haiti.
Doh! forgive me all and neg rep me (yes bring it back just for this).. I was remembering de la torre; take back all the positive rep and get ready to throw rotten fruit at me. Let me see if I can research and fix my mistake.
Okay, this is my understanding. Under Spanish law, you can apply for citizenship in Spain after ten years of residency. Konrad and his family moved from Miami to Barcelona when he was six years old. Now being 16, he may have acquired Spanish citizenship directly, or derivative through his parents, as they now would qualify for Spanish citizenship as well. Again, my apologies to everybody for my earlier misleading post.
Of course, "de la Fuente" isn't a typical Haitian name. Papa may have descended from immigrants to Haiti himself.
1008543210740895747 is not a valid tweet id It's pretty tough to watch this and not get too excited about him. He's silky smooth on the ball, he can put in a good cross, and he is very composed in the final third. I really think he'll do well with Juvenil A next season, he certainly looks up to it. Where does he fit with the USYNT? Is he part of the U-20 cycle?
El once de la temporada 2017-18 de La Masia. #FCBMasia @albert_roge pic.twitter.com/bJDFwJkdjZ— ■neurophate (@neurophate_) June 19, 2018 Konrad makes the bench for the La Masia Team of the Season
Transfermarkt has him listed with Juvenil A this season. One of only about 3-4 non-Spaniards. I think this kid is right there with Pulisic and Weah as the most dynamic youngsters coming through the pipeline. Amazing that he's nearly completely under the radar in the US
No matter what we do, we hardly get any video of him. Most of it is just highlights. At some point, he may get a first team look in a cup match or at the end of the season. Maybe not until next summer in preseason. But if and when that happens, the US fan base will wet themselves and say he’s the best player we’ve ever produced.
Not in this Juvenil B team picture so I'd assume it's pretty much guaranteed he's with Juvenil A now. 📸 El Juvenil B ja està a Prades on farà una estada fins al 2 d’agost, som-hi nois! / El Juvenil B ya está en Prades donde hará un stage de pretemporada hasta el 2 de agosto ¡Vamos chicos!🔵🔴 #ForçaBarça #FCBMasia pic.twitter.com/LEm5xR4uK3— FC Barcelona - Masia (@FCBmasia) July 30, 2018
I'd say that's a good bet but the Juvenil A roster is not finalized yet, according to Barcelona's site.
Suben del juvenil B: Alex Baño, @IvanBravoCastro Antonio Jesús Cantón, @konradjr , Lucas de Vega, Ansu Fati, Labinot Kabashi, Alejandro Marcos, @nilsmortimer11 , Joan Rojas, @sergirosanas , Álvaro Sanz, Antonio Sola y @arnautenas— Josep Capdevila (@josepcapdevila) July 30, 2018 This account (with 32k followers) says that Konrad has been promoted from Juvenil B.