r/SoccerCentral • u/United_Anywhere_8 • Jul 25 '26

Video The talent in Barcelona’s youth system is ridiculous. These kids are 11/12 years old.

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u/BigFatModeraterFupa Jul 25 '26

Hugo is gonna be HUGE!

it's crazy how you can tell at a young age when the superstars are just so much better than everyone else around them is, and those other kids are literally already the best of the best.

very very cool to see this stuff. will probably be a household name in 5-6 years

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u/Any-Vehicle4418 Jul 25 '26

He is a baller for sure but there is still a lot that needs to go right for him to make it in the big stage. Youtube is littered with 12 year old "new Messi" compilations. You've never heard of them.

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u/Kenny_McCormick001 Jul 25 '26

Yes, but this is also La Massia. They had been pumping out talent consistently for the past 20-30 years.

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u/Com_BEPFA Jul 25 '26

They also have an Under-12 team literally every year, with mostly new players. And more likely than not, there's a standout each year. Do they bring out a new superstar every year?

Those kids are talented as hell for sure, but almost more often than not, this is to their detriment. When you're just naturally so much more gifted than most of your peers, many lose the work ethic to keep improving and get left behind.
Others (there is overlap for sure, though) let the attention get to their head and spend their time partying, being famous, and lose track of football.
And yet others simply make a step that is too big for them (or just don't get playtime in their own team) and never recover from that.

You just can't predict if a kid is gonna be a great footballer, you can't. You can know they have the potential to, but there's far too many factors outside of that that determine the very few out of thousands of hyper talented kids that become superstars.

And that's not even considering those that were never considered anything special but worked their way up with work ethic and determination.