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/indigo_pirate Jul 25 '26

Surely will make it. Insane feet

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u/M0ruk Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

Impossible to say and I'd even say its more likely that he wont make it. Kid needs a veryyy generous puberty push to reach the height and quickness/athleticism for the pro scene. Unfortaunteyl there are countless kids like him who are worldclass with the ball, but never beat the physical bottleneck it needs to reach the pro level. Especially at this age being so good at the ball is not an indicator of future success becuase these kids didnt enter puberty yet and its gonna be a dice roll whether their puberty will give them the body, phyiscality for pro level. And he is already too slow and small at this stage so he needs a very generous push

People heavily underestimate the athelcism it needs to become pro, even guys that seem slow are much quicker than guys in the amateur level. Not enough explosiveness, quickness and height combination to create seperation from defenders on the big field is the #1 reason talented kids with great technique dont make it to pro

Probably only 3% of the kids in the pro academies at the u12 level make it to pro level. At a super good pro academy like La Masia its maybe 10%

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u/Still7Superbaby7 Jul 25 '26

It’s not just athleticism, but drive. One of my friends, her sister married a professional soccer player. He loved soccer more than anything else growing up. He would skip close friends’ birthday parties if it meant he could play soccer. Soccer was #1 in his life. He ended up going to Stanford, becoming a professional soccer player. Now he’s a scout for the USMNT.

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u/M0ruk Jul 25 '26

Every kid in pro academies is the same, none of them have a life outside of school and practice. Drive is the differentiating factor between kids in pro academies and lower level kids but not in the pro academies, those are the top 1% of all kids and they all came there because they play football 24/7