Four Barcelona pearls who can offer a similar profile to that of Nico Williams – Report | OneFootball

This upcoming season will once again test FC Barcelona to their limit and their mettle will be brought into question. Fortunately, the Catalan giants are known not to back away from a fight. With that in mind, Barcelona will look to fight on next season as well.

Barcelona could not manage to sign Nico Williams

Nico Williams will not join Barcelona this summer. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

However, the club would ideally like to enter the new season with some much-needed reinforcements. Despite having a strong campaign over the course of last season, FC Barcelona acknowledge the need to reinforce the team in light of their opponents doing the same.

To do this, one of the key targets for Barcelona was Nico Williams. While he was initially not a major priority, the player’s insistence on joining this summer made it clear that the club could once again head into an operation with the player in mind.

Unfortunately, that particular operation only ended up being a waste of time for Barcelona. Instead of joining the club, the Spanish winger ended up renewing his contract with Athletic Club until 2035 with a higher salary as well.

In response, Barcelona are now set to look at other options instead of wasting any more of their precious time on Nico Williams. However, while the arrival of a new left-winger seems likely this summer, Barça also seem to have a couple of youth options already at their disposal.

Some notable youngsters with a similar profile

According to Mundo Deportivo, there are at least four young players to keep an eye on when considering profiles similar to Nico Williams. Fortunately for Barcelona, the four youngsters in question already happen to be youth players for the Catalan club.

From that respective, the two most likely candidates to get more minutes with the first team next season are Dani Rodriguez and Jan Virgili. Both players are talented wingers with their own unique strengths, but they both have a lot to offer.

Rodriguez, for instance, is a left-footed winger who originally joined from Real Sociedad’s youth ranks and stood out in Barça’s Juvenil A team. Due to untimely injuries and participation with the youth Spanish team, Rodriquez was unable to make his mark early on but still managed to get a first team debut with Hansi Flick last season.

Virgili, on the other hand, would enter the first team as a complete unknown if he were to get a chance next season. He joined Barcelona last summer and quickly earned a promotion from the Juvenil A team to the Barca Atletic team led by Sergi Mila. Moreover, he also earned a call-up to the Spanish squad that took part in the Under-19 European Championship.

Two other talents to keep an eye on

Two other names include the likes of Ibrahim Diarra and Toni Fernandez, and both players are reportedly exceptionally talented. From Mali, Ibrahim Diarra has been seen as a player who has improved gradually since his arrival at Barcelona and is already a standout performer at international level as well.

Toni Fernandez, on the other hand, is an exceptional talent as well. After establishing himself as a key figure for Barcelona Atletic last season, he soon caught the eye of Hansi Flick and has regularly been seen with the first team but is yet to make his official debut.