Leo Messi, like other Barça players summoned with their selections, did not want to lose detail of the friendly that was played against the modest Cartagena, a group that is currently in Second Division B. A unique opportunity to see the less usual already in action the young promises of the subsidiary, which left a very good taste.
Neto, Junior Firpo, Ousmane Dembele or Carles Alena tried to convince Ernesto Valverde that they deserve more minutes, without success, and youth players such as Alejandro Marqués, Ronald Araujo, Kike Saverio, Alex Collado or Chumi showed their credentials. But without a doubt, the player who came out most revitalized after the final whistle was, again, Riqui Puig.
The young midfielder barely 20 years old gave a lesson again. Pause, tempering, game vision, technical quality, ability with the ball, associative capacity … there is no doubt that he is more than ready to make the leap and leave the branch, which is too small. And clubs like Real Betis, UD Las Palmas, Leganes, Real Sociedad or Sporting de Gijón have already considered their assignment.
Other foreign entities such as Tottenham, Olympique de Marseille or Lazio want to take it through. An idea that until recently scared Matadepera’s, but that he no longer sees with such bad eyes, seeing the few opportunities he enjoys in the first team, where he trains daily. Therefore, Messi has ordered him to be retained.
He doesn’t want to lose more talents, as has happened lately with Jordi Mboula, Sergio Gómez, Mateu Morey, Xavi Simons or Robert Navarro. And he wants to be registered with the first team already, in January, when Ivan Rakitic, Carles Alena and company leave. In this way, he hopes to convince Riqui to reject all attempts to rain.
