The Barcelona growth brilliant who has to fill huge shoes by Patrick Kluivert

Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 00:00• Jordi Tomasowa • Last update: 00:14

In collaboration with Goal, Voetbalzone regularly highlights young players who can go far in the future or who are already earning their spurs in (inter)national top football. This time, the focus is on 17-year-old Ilias Akhomach, who made his debut for Barcelona on November 20 against Espanyol.

Josep Guardiola replaced Frank Rijkaard as Barcelona head coach in 2008. After losing his first LaLiga game against Numancia, the Catalan coach made a surprising starting point for a debutant in the next league game. The then twenty-year-old midfielder Sergio Busquets was thrown to the lions by Guardiola against Racing Santander. Although Busquets ended his debut in a disappointing 1-1 draw, his trainer laid the foundation for later success at Barca, as the talented midfielder quickly became the linchpin of the team.

Many Barcelona fans are hoping that Xavi can revive the old times under Guardiola. It shouldn’t come as a big shock that the new trainer also had a surprise in store on his debut at the Camp Nou. Still, the starting position of winger Akhomach during the derby against Espanyol on 20 November raised some eyebrows. The teenager was not once in the match selection under the recently fired Ronald Koeman. Given the club’s current financial situation, it may have come as no surprise that one of the youth academy’s greatest talents in recent years was given just such a stage to make his professional debut.

Akhomach has long been seen as one of the most promising talents of La Masia, as the youth academy of Barcelona is also known. The 17-year-old attacker is one of the stars of an exceptionally talented generation born in 2004. His peer Gavi has already made the step to the first team. And while Akhomach’s starting spot against Espanyol was partly explained by the injuries to Ansu Fati, Ousmane Dembele and Martin Braithwaite, he looks poised to follow in Gavi’s footsteps. If it is up to Akhomach himself, he will play a role in Xavi’s team more often this season.

As the son of Moroccan parents in Spain, Akhomach entered the youth of Barcelona at a very young age. However, he had to leave the club as his age group moved from seven-a-seven to 11-a-side. He was picked up by local side Gimnàstic Manresa, where he played for four years before Barça returned limp for the teenager in 2017. “He was in the spotlight of several clubs from Europe at the time,” his agent Horacio Gaggioli told Cadena SER. His agent also confirmed that Real Madrid was one of the interested clubs.

However, Akhomach only wanted to return to Barcelona and has made up for lost time over the past four years as he made his way through the various youth teams. The youngster first became known in 2019, when former head of youth academy Patrick Kluivert in an interview with Cadena SER claimed he had found ‘the new Lionel Messi’. With his ability to trick full-backs and cut in from the right with his left foot, Akhomach bears some resemblance to the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner. It is a huge burden to put on the shoulders of someone so young.

“Akhomach is not the new Messi and even if he was, it shouldn’t be said,” his agent Gaggioli said of Kluivert’s comments. “Being Messi is practically impossible. Ilias is a great player with huge potential. He has a great training at Barcelona and he is a very sensible boy. He is only interested in football.” Those Messi-like football qualities have been seen for both club and country in the first months of the 2021/22 season. Akhomach chose to represent Spain despite his family’s Moroccan background.

In his fourth appearance for Barcelona B, the teenage talent scored twice against Sevilla Atlético in early November. First he found space between the left back and the central defender to shoot in with the right, after which he gave the opposing goalkeeper behind with a shot with his beloved left foot. Xavi watched intently as the U23 team quickly finished the job in the Estadi Johan Cruyff. If it were Akhomach’s goals that persuaded the head coach to give him his chance in the starting lineup against Espanyol, Akhomach could hardly have timed his first goals in Spain’s third tier better.

“He’s a winger who can pass in and out in one-on-one,” said Xavi’s brother and assistant coach, Óscar Hernández, after Akhomach was announced his promotion to the first team. “Because of the way we play, we need such a player. He deserves the chance.” Akhomach’s debut in the main squad ultimately lasted only 45 minutes, as he was replaced by Abdessamad Ezzalzouli at half time. After he had to miss the Champions League match with Benfica (0-0) due to a red card in the UEFA Youth League, he was only a substitute against Villarreal the following weekend.

It is expected that the youngster will eventually need to become physically stronger if he is to take his next steps in his career, but once he has the ball at his feet there are few more exciting talents to be found in Spain at the moment, something Xavi can do. has also seen. Whether he can reach the level of a player like Busquets (or Messi) remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that Akhomach’s development is worth following.