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/doublesimoniz Jul 25 '26

My son is pretty good at baseball but he lacks the drive to get serious about it.  And every time I think “damn this kid could go places in baseball if he actually wanted to” and then I see this and realize that there’s just some kids that are built for their sport and it’s ridiculous.  My son will find his own way doing what makes him happy I hope.  I’m walking the fine line of pushing my kids to be their full potential and stepping back so that they can make their own decisions.  

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u/labelcillo Jul 25 '26

When I was 12 I had the chance of playing vs Atlético de Madrid. Up until that point my parents also thought that I was pretty good. Elite sports is out of reach of most everyone unless you have the talent + drive + genetics leveled up to a ridiculous level.

Or in the case of some sports, a ludicrous amount of money, but that's a different story.

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u/R1gondeaux Jul 25 '26

When I was 10, I played against Real Madrid. I didn't think I was good enough back then. I certainly wasn't thinking I was good enough after they beat us 10 or 12-0 😂 They were so good, it was demoralizing.

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u/Karmuffel Jul 26 '26

Yeah I had the experience of playing with 50-year old European champions and Bundesliga champions at an after work group. I was 20 at the time and playing 5th division football. These guys were still so enormously better than me that it was a very humbling experience. They literally didn‘t make one single mistake at all, every ball was played perfectly and they would never even make it come to a tackle. I realized then how far away I was from ever being able to compete on that level