Sergi Barjuan directed at Alejandro Balde in the subsidiary of FC Barcelona and even in his brief stint on the first team bench between the sacking of RDonald Koeman and the taking of Xavi Hernandez. The coach of Les Franqueses assured Catalonia Radio that sees Balde, who was recently called up by the Spanish team to play in the World Cup in Qatar, “prepared for anything from the moment he plays in the first team of Barça”. In addition, Sergi pointed out that the dizzying progress in the young left-back’s career reminds him of himself, almost 30 years ago and also at Barça. “Something very similar to what happened to Balde happened to me: I made my debut in the Champions League and in just six months I played in the finals of the Champions League and I went to a World Cup,” he recalled .
For Sergi, it is difficult to belong to a club as demanding as Barça, even if like Balde you are only 19 years old. “The lack of experience will always be noticed, but when you get to the first team of Barça and play, you can do everything, so Alejandro can also perform well in the national team,” he predicted.
Sergi made the leap from the subsidiary to the Barça first team at the end of 1993 in a Champions League match against Galatasaray and, at the end of the course, he ended up being quoted by javier clemente to play with the Spanish team in United States World Cup in 1994. Sergi stressed that “Balde has very good conditions and brings different things, because he is very deep and when he is physically fit the left lane has a lot of back and forth with him.” As with all young startups, it is key to feel the support of the technicians. “Last year he trained all year with the first team and Xavi gives him confidence. He has definitely worked with him watching videos and in training, and everything shows,” he analyzed.
The facet of the game that often costs Barça’s homegrown players the most is defense, due to habit. “All the players from the youth academy are very good offensively, they have unique qualities, but defensively they don’t work much until a certain age because they always hold the ball and only after reaching the youth team you don’t start forcing yourself to improve quickly and evolve defensively,” he concluded. Sergi.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
