After talking about the less known talents that were born in 2000+ and came through La Masia with the likes of Marc Jurado, Leo dos Reis, Adrián Bernabé and others. It’s time to discuss those players that just recently left the club, and are still in the development stage of their careers.
This article will talk about players that do not belong to Barcelona and have left the club permanently. This is the final part of the “La Masia players in Europe” series.
RECENT DEPARTURES
Arnau Comas (2000)
Arnau joined La Masia in 2010 from Girona. During his time with Barcelona youth teams, he was picked as a player of the tournament in the MIC tournament. In the 17/18 season, he won UEFA Youth League with Juvenil A making 6 appearances. In 2019 summer his contract was renewed and he was promoted to Barcelona B. The centre-back was loaned out the same summer to UE Olot. There he managed to make significant improvements.
After his return, he became one of the key players for Garcia Pimienta. In 2022, he was called up for the first team against Mallorca. But remained on the bench not able to make his official debut. In the summer, ahead of the 22/23 season his contract expired and he joined FC Basel. He made his debut on the 24th of July against Servette FC. The centre-back also made his European debut as FC Basel played in the Conference League this season. Impressing for the Swiss club Arnau Comas earned a call-up to the Spain U21 side. In their league game, Arnau scored 2 goals in their 3-1 win over Winterthur.
However, just a few months later he suffered a muscle injury. That kept him on the sidelines for the rest of the season. The player returned only for their last league match but did not come off the bench. It will be needed to see if he will be able to recover his best before the injury, as he was doing very well in Switzerland.
Jorge Alastuey (2003)
Jorge joined La Masia in 2016 from Zaragoza. The midfielder, despite his shy personality was one of the captains for the teams he played for. In the 18/19 season, Jorge Alastuey suffered an ACL injury that kept him out for almost a year. Despite, suffering a long-term injury the club offered him a renewal until 2022 with a promotion to Juvenil B.
In February 2020 he started his first game, since the ACL injury, in a friendly game against SC Cambuur, where he scored a goal. In the 20/21 season he finished the season with 5 goals and a few assists. Finally ahead of the 21/22 season he was promoted to Juvenil A. Where he contributed with 6 goals and 6 assists and won a double with the team, and we proclaimed Champions of Spain.
At the end of the season, Barcelona decided against his renewal. Jorge joined Italian giants Napoli, playing with their Primavera squad. This season he has been important player contributing with 3 goals and 4 assists. Even was training with the Napoli’s first team that easily won Serie A. Now it remains to be seen what happens with Jorge. Will he be promoted to the first team, loaned out to another team or leaves permanently.
Diego López (2002)
Diego joined Juvenil B from Real Madrid in 2018. The forward played 3 years at the club. In his last season for Juvenil A, he was the team’s top scorer with 13 goals scored. However, he was not renewed and joined Valencia Mestalla. In the 22/23 season, he played 22 games for the subsidiary scoring 5 goals and picking up 1 assist in just 1000 minutes.
With Valencia struggling in La Liga, Diego together with Javi Guerra entered the first team dynamics. Diego made his debut early in the season against Atletico Madrid. But after making his debut he was called back to the subsidiary and appeared only at the end. And in May he was starting for Valencia playing as a right-winger. Being a key player contributing 3 goals and 1 assist in the last 5 games.
With one of the goals being the winner against Real Madrid. Diego will be officially promoted to the first team for the 23/24 season, where he will chance to impress further.
Moussa Ndiaye (2002)
Moussa was supposed to join Barcelona B from Aspire Academy in 2020. However, to some paperwork issues, he spent one season playing with Juvenil A. He was impressive enough for the U19, mostly playing as a centre-back. He did pre-season with the first team in the 21/22 season, where he played as a left-back, which continued to be his position at the subsidiary.
After a difficult season, he joined Anderlecht in the 22/23 season. Initially, he played with the subsidiary of Anderlecht. He even managed to pick up an assist on his debut. His good performances also caught the attention of the head coach of Anderlecht.
He made his first-team debut against KV Mechelen. In the same game, he assisted Fabio Silva’s goal that saw them win 3-1. He had a few man-of-the-match performances since then, with the game against AZ in the Conference being one of the standout performances. It’s expected that Moussa will continue with the Belgium team, and will continue his development.
Pol Muñoz (2004)
Pol joined La Masia in 2015 from Lleida. The defender spent 7 years at the club, coming through all the ranks of football 11. In the 21/22 season, he was among the players who helped Juvenil A win a double. They won the league and afterwards, they won Copa Campeones as they defeated Athletic Club 2-0 in the final. Shortly after winning the competition, the right-back who also can play as a centre-back announced that he would be leaving the club to join Lecce Primavera.
After Joan Gonzalez did the same, Pol looks to be following in the same footsteps. The defender helped the Italian club to win the league contributing with 4 assists from the right-back position. Pol became the Champion of Spain and the Champions of Italy at the U19 level in just 2 years. Now it needs to be seen whether, he will stay another year at the Primavera he will earn a promotion to the first team, or leave on loan or permanently.
Mika Mármol (2001)
Mika started playing at FCB Escola, before going through the academies of Jabac, Terrassa, and Damm and eventually joining La Masia in 2018. The young defender made his Barcelona B debut in 2019 as he replaced another La Masia player Oscar Mingueza in the game against Orihuela.
In the 20/21 season, Mika was promoted to the Barcelona B, where played as a centre-back and a left-back. Finishing the season with 2 goals and 1 assist. In the 21/22 season, he finally made his official FC Barcelona debut as he came replacing Alejandro Balde against Getafe. In the same season, Mika became one of the most important players for the subsidiary, being an undisputed starter for Sergi Barjuan playing over 3000 minutes.
At the end of the season, he left for Pique’s FC Andorra with the club keeping 50% of a future sale and also including a buyback option of around €1m. This season he established himself as one of the big revelations of La Liga Smartbank and now multiple clubs are paying attention to his future.
Nils Mortimer (2001)
Nils joined the club in 2013 from Malaga. The winger played in all ranks of football 11 at Barcelona. In the 19/20 season, he picked up 9 goals and 13 assists for Juvenil A. Making it in total 15 goals and 18 assists in 2 seasons for the U19 side.
He made his official debut for Barça B on March 24, 2019, against Ebro, and managed to play 119 minutes with the subsidiary. In the 20/21 season he was promoted to Barcelona B and in two seasons he contributed with 3 goals and 1 assist.
In the summer of 2022, Nils left the club after 9 years, joining Danish club – Viborg. There he had a great start to the season, but mid-season he lost his place and was not even called up for the games. Eventually, he finished the season with 3 goals and 4 assists in around 1200 minutes of playing time, while also scoring against FC Copenhagen.
Gerard ‘Peque’ Fernández (2002)
After impressing at Cornella, in 2014, Barcelona brought the young attacker to La Masia. Just after 2 years at Barcelona’s academy, he came back to Cornella after he was deemed not good enough. In the 2018/2019 season for Cornella’s Juvenil B (U18), he scored 28 goals in Liga Nacional.
Peque returned to Barcelona in the summer of 2019, joining Juvenil A side and made his debut against his former club under Juvenil A coach Víctor Valdés. Peque scored 21 goals and 2 assists in the same season. On the 9th of February 2020, he made his official debut for Barcelona B, scoring his first goal for the team. At the same time becoming the second-youngest goal scorer and youngest goalscorer in the third division of Spain for Barcelona B in this century just at the age of 17 years 4 months and 5 days.
This achievement didn’t last long as just a few months later Ilaix Moriba took that title from the forward. In the 20/21 season, the player was officially promoted to the subsidiary while still being one of the youngest players in the squad. In 2 seasons filled with injuries and lack of playing time, he managed to score 7 goals and contributed 1 assist.
However ahead of the 22/23 season, his contract was not renewed and he left the club joining Racing Santander in La Liga Smartbank. While struggling for game time at the beginning of the season, Peque remained patient, and by the end of the season managed to score a goal and picked up 2 assists in 572 minutes. The player needs playing time, we will see if he will stay at the club or look for minutes elsewhere.
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