Flick blocks four Barcelona gems from travelling to Brazil for U20 Intercontinental Cup | OneFootball

On 23 August, at the iconic Maracana Stadium, FC Barcelona Juvenil A side, as winners of the 2024/25 UEFA Youth League, will face Flamengo, champions of the latest U-20 Copa Libertadores, in the U-20 Intercontinental Cup.

It is one of the few trophies still missing from the club’s cabinet, and the youth team squad approaches it with great enthusiasm.

The travelling party is due to fly to Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday morning, staying until Sunday in Brazil, with training sessions scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at Fluminense’s training facilities.

Juliano Belletti, who led the Juvenil A team to the treble success last season and is now the Barça Atletic head coach, is likely to head the expedition to Brazil.

However, the clash takes place on the same day as Levante v Barcelona, making it unthinkable for the likes of Pau Cubarsi, Lamine Yamal, or Marc Bernal to travel. They are untouchable within the first-team setup.

If he were to call upon all of Barcelona’s U-20 talents, he could assemble an almost unstoppable team.

Hansi Flick blocks four youngsters from travelling

There was, however, consideration given to sending other La Masia gems Pedro ‘Dro’ Fernandez, Toni Fernandez, Guille Fernandez and Jofre Torrents, all of whom are currently working under Flick.

But according to SPORT, the German coach himself vetoed the idea a few days ago, unwilling to lose the four players for an entire week.

Jofre and Dro were both involved with the Juvenil A team last season, especially the full-back, and played a role in winning the Youth League – the triumph that earned them a spot in the U20 Intercontinental Cup.

Dro will not join Juvenil A for the U20 Intercontinental Cup. (Photo by Paul Miller/Getty Images)

Toni and Guille, meanwhile, did not participate as they were fully focused on the B team. However, none of them will be allowed to go to Brazil.

Flick’s reasoning for the decision is twofold: firstly, the club is still dealing with pending registrations. While Joan Garcia and Marcus Rashford are now officially registered, the cases of Gerard Martin, Roony Bardghji and Wojciech Szczesny remain unresolved.

On top of that, the aforementioned quartet have been training with the first team since 14 July and, in some cases, are already contributing. Torrents, for example, played over 20 minutes in Mallorca and demonstrated his usefulness in the first team.

As such, it is expected that all four will continue appearing regularly in matchday squads and gradually accumulate minutes, with at least one of them likely to be involved almost every week.

By taking this stance, Flick has made it clear to the club’s sporting department that he prefers to keep reliable options available rather than risk complications while registration issues remain unsettled.