The change reflects Barcelona's newfound understanding of the value of nurturing its own talent to fortify its defensive base.
As the experienced defensive center back Inigo Martinez departs the club to Al Nassr in a free transfer, Barcelona needs a replacement in the backline but their La Masia academy might have the solution to that. At the centre of this transition lies two young left footed centre back promising prospects namely Alvaro Cortes and Andres Cuenca, which are being given serious thoughts to as the natural successors to Martinez.
Young 20 year old Alvaro Cortes stands strongly as a player that demands attention in general and Barca Atletic in particular, due to his excellent spatial orientation skills that continuously cut off an opponent attack. After overcoming a knee injury in a loan stint at Damm, his talent has earned him a call up to the first team to play a La Liga match against Celta Vigo in 2024 though he is yet to make his first team starting appearance.
Meanwhile, eighteen year old Andres Cuenca is already being stylistically compared to Martinez because of his coolness and his ability to handle the ball. Ademuz born defender came into the senior team debut when he was 17 years old in the Champions League by replacing Martinez himself in the 84 th minute against Young Boys. Large performances in the UEFA Youth League, scoring in the final, and as a key member of the U19 Spanish team in the European Championship in the final of 2025 yearpoint to his high potential as a long term first team regular.
Barcelona, which is limited by the Financial Fair Play rule, is valuing the Brazilian departure as a method of saving the approximate costs of 8.4 million in salaries that could be spent on the registration of new stars Joan Garcia, Marcus Rashford and Roony Bardghji. Already having Ronald Araujo, Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi and Andreas Christensen in senior right footed defensive positions, with Gerard Martn providing depth, the club seems comfortable developing its own instead of bringing in a new player. Here, amid this defensive crisis, La Masia youth stars are now waiting in the wings to take center stage and bring that combination of strategic finesse and youth club raised identity, of which Barca has always been fond.
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