Official: Barcelona youth midfielder promoted to senior team, will receive #16 jersey

Barcelona were left distraught after losing Gavi to an ACL tear while the teenager was playing with Spain on international duty last year. Arguably the glue of the team, his season came to an end, and with it, the club’s hopes of winning silverware.

With Pedri also consistently injured and Oriol Romeu’s signing not working out quite as well as the board would have hoped, the current blaugrana midfield has been left in shambles.

As such, it has come as a surprise to several fans that Xavi is not making the most out of a certain Fermin Lopez’s services. The youngster broke through the senior team earlier this season, but his minutes have only been reducing gradually since.

Despite that, though, Barcelona have officially promoted Fermin to the senior team today. His new league card was submitted for processing, and has been approved by La Liga, as is visible on their website.

Toni Juanmarti claims that Fermin will be given the #16 first-team number, last worn by Ez Abde at the start of this season before he left to join Real Betis in the search of more game-time.

Miralem Pjanic also wore the #16 during his first season before bravely taking on Andres Iniesta’s legendary #8 jersey, which is now rightly with Pedri.

As far as Fermin is concerned, the 20-year-old has 14 appearances to his name this season, with six of them starts – including one against Real Madrid in the league, where he nearly scored, too.

He has a goal to his name across those games, and is expected to get his first minutes as a first-team player as early as tomorrow when Barcelona take on Osasuna at the Olympic Saint Montjuic.