Barcelona working on signing two teenage African talents – report

Given the difficulty in competing with the big European clubs for established players with a high level of prestige, FC Barcelona have focused their market strategy on other areas.

Since Joan Laporta’s arrival in 2021, the football management began to focus on spotting young talents before they explode and command exorbitant prices.

The focus, resources, and efforts are being directed towards developing a network capable of discovering young footballers in areas that are relatively less exploited and that could be important in the future.

Barcelona strengthening scouting network in Africa

As such, SPORT reports that Barcelona have recently increased their scouting in the continent of Africa, and this season they have already had two players – Ibrahim Diarra and David Oduro – on trial in their youth teams with excellent results.

So much so that, work is being done to sign those two talents.

For some time now, the Catalans have been implementing a structural plan to identify and detect emerging talent from strategic countries such as Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal.

It is a strategy that was born from Laporta himself, who has promoted this ‘network’, whose key and visible figure is Sergi Barjuan, in coordination with the scouting department led by Paulo Araujo.

The former Barça Atletic coach, who also had a very short stint on the first team bench after Ronald Koeman’s sacking, has already travelled to Africa on a couple of occasions as part of the club’s bid to unearth special gems on the continent.

Club working to sign two African talents

Within this roadmap, it is worth noting that two young talents, Ibrahim Diarra from Mali and David Oduro from Ghana, have already been on trial this season.

Diarra was on trial at the beginning of the year with both the youth team and the reserve team. He left magnificent sensations. And Barça are working to sign him when he turns 18 in December.

Meanwhile, Oduro has been playing in his country’s first division for months with the Accra Lions despite being 17. The left-back trained with Barça’s Juvenil B team and left a great impression. They are also working to bring him in when he turns 18 in June.