Two Barcelona summer youth recruits called up to first-team training today

New Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has carried forward Xavi’s tradition of maintaining a close eye on the subsidiary team and has even provided debuts to young stars in his short term so far. 

It is thus not surprising that the German tactician regularly calls up players of the lower categories to train with the first team especially if he sees a spark in their quality.

Saturday’s training session before Barcelona’s clash against Girona was no different as it saw two new faces make their debut in training with the senior side – David Oduro and Abdul Aziz Issah, as revealed by SPORT.

New signings called up

With finances still a major limiting factor, Barcelona forfeited the European market and went all out on the African market to reinforce the B team.

Oduro and Aziz Issah are players who made a move as part of that revolution and are thus new faces in the training facility, along with another exciting teenager Guille Fernandez.

Both players don’t have a work permit yet to play for Barça Athletic officially and are thus out of the picture for Albert Sanchez’s side’s clash against Unionistas.

Flick thus used the opportunity to call the players up and see what they bring to the table knowing full well that he cannot count on them immediately.

18-year-old Oduro is a left-back by profession while his fellow Ghanaian Aziz Issah is a winger, who has likened himself to Lamine Yamal. The latter thus competes for a position far harder to break into the first team dynamics than the defender.

Flick will hope to be able to count on the stars in the coming months should they adapt well to Spanish football for both players are considered to be among the creme-de-la-creme of the African market.

Meanwhile, Saturday’s training session also saw Ansu Fati train ahead of what could be his debut game for the season. Gavi also continued his work with the group as he edges closer to a much-awaited return.