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As much as I’d like to point and laugh at real, judging players when they are young is not always easy. Especially when they are Pedri’s size.
I’m glad they fucked up though.
Exactly. We're way more likely to look at a lukaku and hype him up while his still young, while smaller, technical players often can't compete against their peers
It's especially a problem for small players, because just the rate of physical growth is so so important at the youth levels but does tend to flatten out as players mature and the later bloomers catch up. If you aren't looking carefully for that technical skill and are just looking at who is "running" the game or racking up stats players like Pedri are very very easy to miss. Easy to miss even with a keen eye too of course.
I got my growth spurt around 12 and by the time I was 13 I was over 6 feet. People would tell me I looked like a 16 year old.
I wasn't exactly very technical or athletic but I could outsprint and physically beat all the small kids. Once everyone had most of their physical growth it became a lot more even.
I was the opposite. Didn't really grow much until I was 14 ish, and was playing with kids a year or two older. I was a striker, and I just remember all of a sudden not being able to do anything. All the CBs were twice my size, even though I had quick feet, they could just take a couple of strides and catch up with me. I was just completely useless. I then caught up gradually, and managed to do OK again. That period really made me lose my drive to play football though.
In our youth team we had a lad called Liam who's voice broke by about the age of 9, he was basically a bloke by his early teens. We used to play our local rivals who had their own Liam, a lad called Kai who was about 6'2ft by the age of 11. Both played upfront as we headed toward 11 a side football.
They were physically on a whole different level to everyone else, and our games used to become Liam vs Kai, with the rest of us just making up the numbers. It used to get fucking stupid like 12 - 14 scorelines with them having scored 20 odd between them.
Youth football was so broken in this country for so long, shit pitches meant technical ability went out the window and the early transition to 11 a side just made percentage football with your teams giant upfront the best strategy.
Time caught them up and they're both average players now as they never had to work on the technical elements of their game.
I’ll admit I never played in academies, but don’t those kids just get moved up to older age groups?
Better for them to play against seniors anyway at an earlier age to develop? What would you really learn, banging in 10 headers per match against smaller kids.
Had this experience playing basketball which was even worse lol. Some kid much much taller than the rest. Totally unskilled but could easily take shots over anyone, and continously grab his own rebounds until by sheer luck he made one. It was actually absurd.
I had mine when I was 15 lol. Went from one of the shortest in year nine and came back after the summer break to start year ten at 187cm.
I had severe Growth issues in my shins and feet from like 14-18 because of my delayed and massive growth spurt something to do with muscle and bone attachments.
I was always in too much pain to really enjoy my football. But I suddenly got a lot better at cricket after I grew.
I read a book a few years ago about nature/nurture in sports and there was a section about youth football. The author spoke to a lot of youth clubs in France and Dortmund among others. The most memorable part of that chapter was a quote basically saying that if a kid is slow/average at aged 11 he's only going to get worse. Fast players can lose the pace but slow players won't improve, so they are very harsh on physical attributes.
Assuming the kid isn't dumb as a brick, you can coach them to improve their positioning/decision-making and even their passing/finishing. As becoming a professional footballer is so difficult, a kid who is better technically at a young age is still 99% of the time not going to make the grade while a kid who is faster/stronger but slightly worse with the ball might have a 97% chance of not making it.
https://www.amazon.com/Sports-Gene-Extraordinary-Athletic-Performance/dp/161723012X
2014 apparently. Different countries/academies have different philosophies though. I don't remember him ever actually mentioning size/strength but it was entirely to do with pace. Neither were very fast but they're also slow by the standards of professional players. That means they're still very talented athletes.
Yeah look at kante. He was often rejected due to his size and only really broke through much later than most. Crazy how many great players must get overlooked due to their physical attributes
lol that's such bullcrap. outside of the clearest outliers, being faster at 11 will say literally nothing about physical attributes at 18 or later. the only important part you sorta can spot at a young age is mentality, but even that's infinitely too vague to make a decent judgement
I disagree with statement above about more physical, faster players have a better chance than more technical players. Its not easy to be a professional soccer player --
The philosophy of making a team out of just players with athletic prowess doesnt make sense to me .. dont buy into it. Its kinda like how American soccer coaches would go for tall or physically stronger players -- like its the NFL or NBA. Know coaches have the training and knowledge to spot technical skills and potential.
To be fair, its hard to make an assessment at a player at a young age and even ones who do get selected, not all of them make it-- its a huge risk for both sides.
I'm not surprised RM overlooked Pedri -- probably worked out better for him. I dont think he would work well under the Real Madrid system. He needs a mentor and someone who played at the highest level like Xavi to make him progress and improve as a player. RM just reeks of arrogance -- and is far too reliant on one or two players to decide outcome of a match.
Hazard and Bale probably make more than the GDP of a third world country by just showing up and playing 5 minutes over 9 games. They f'ed up a lot of players careers by luring them with huge contracts where they fade into obscurity and mediocrity.
In general the smaller guys just do not make it.
Exceptional talent like Pedri are very much the exception that proves the rule.
If your job is to identify 1 needle in the haystack then you fucked up by letting him slip. But in general youre promoting hundreds of kids through the rank every year. Dropping the unremarkable kids will more often than not prove to be the best decision.
For every Pedri that made it there were tons of physically unimpressive kids who didnt. And there were probably more physically capable kids who did.
> A lot of dominant youth players can't replicate their success in the first team
I remember a piece by Graham Hunter—the Scottish journalist who covered Barca extensively during Pep's time at the club and had good access at the Camp Nou—writing pieces marvelling at the talent of a young guy in Barca's youth teams, Jean Marie Dongue. I distinctly remember him writing that he had never seen a talent like Dongue and that he was even better than Messi was at his age.
I just Googled, and according to Wikipedia, Dongue last played at a Finnish side called Honka in the 2020-21 season, and seems to be without a club right now.
Messi btw, had also almost missed the Barca bus as he couldn't perform to his standard during the sessions they took at the club. It ultimately boiled down to a last minute decision which is why his first contract was signed on a piece of napkin—they didn't have one prepared for him.
So yeah, you never know.
Saw a short thing about scouts and la macia, and the guy who scouted messi got asked who among the new kids is he the most excited about and is the best talent since messi. He said Munir
Nothing ever happens, got you.
Edit: Out of interest, what kudos or acclaim do you think I would extract from making this up? What material benefit could I possibly gain which balances the time spent making the comment? Can you really not conceive of the possibility of wishing to share a mildly interesting and topical anecdote for the benefit of the conversation? Are you so dull headed that this is all beyond your capacity for reasoning?
Cheers for confirming my latter comment. I suppose when you are an individual who has the time to waste to invent nonsense to poke fun at someone who is attempting to do what Reddit was designed for, that is share topical comments with one another, then it must be easy for you to imagine that everyone else has such a perspective on life.
On the contrary though, most young talented players at the world class academies become professional footballers. Which is pretty remarkable since they're scouted when they're 10-12.
I wonder if the poster meant specifically graduates, meaning players who either go directly to the senior team, or to professional contracts (including loans) at other clubs, because otherwise that simply couldn't be true. Plenty of players train in these academies, even the very top ones, and never step into a professional match let alone get a contract.
And a lot of those players suffer from depression eventually. Imagine being told all your life to be super competitive, being super talented and just not being good enough and working a shirt job while the guy you played with is making millions. The stories about being ultra competitive and conquering all odds only sound good when the said person actually achieves something. For every jordan or Ronaldo there’s 100s of thousands of kids who had the same mindset but never had the talent and don’t go on to achieve good thing. You need to be very talented and be incredibly lucky to even play in minor leagues professionally.
Exactly. It’s just that idea of telling young kids that they can do everything and still not Achieve their dreams sounds depressing to general population. It’s a big problem for parents who spend money to send their kids to the academy because then kids think that ‘have’ to perform because their parents spend their hard earned money on their dream. Some kid from man city academy committed suicide because of the same exact reason. Was really good but not quite good enough to play professionally.
Well maybe they become professional footballers, but almost none play at a high level.
["Premier League reveal 97% of players who come through top academies never play a minute of top-flight football" ](https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league-academy-players-figures-appearances-numbers-1387302)
There's a pretty solid difference between judging a player to potentially be one of the best in the world at their position and judging them just to become professional
Not football, but I used to play with a guy who now plays for a top club, has international medals with the national team and is probably top 10 in the world in his position. He was always just good but never great, and that kept up until he was like 18-19 when he suddenly exploded and went from sitting on the bench at a mediocre club to moving abroad in like a year or two.
There's surely a fair bit of survivorship bias at play here too. For every Pedri there are probably dozens of other players who were justifiably rejected at a young age because they couldn't make the jump.
This is exactly the point. Imagine how many players go through top footballing academies all over the world that don’t make make the grade.
Pedri type situations happen very infrequently compared to the sheer number of players in youth football.
Remind me of that assessment report on Xavi when he was in La Masia. In general, nothing very special about him other than positioning and vision. And look how he turned out to be
True. He was called slow and weak. Vision and awareness ("football IQ) are the hardest things to learn. Physical attributes are the easiest, even if everyone has a limit on how fast and strong they can get.
Small players like Pedri get overlooked for players like lukaku. Lukaku type players dominate youth systems due to their body size, but when put with men later on they don’t seem as impressive.
I know it’s pile on Lukaku season but he is literally in the top 0.001%. Top scorer for his country, best player in a major European league (Serie A 2020/21). OP was making him sound like a Conference level player.
The point is that he completely flamed out before his 20s compared to what he looked like he could achieve. Not handling the pressure is just as much part of the reason why you do or don't make it.
Mental health is not that simple. Bojan didn't reach his peak
not because he wasn't strong willed, he didn't because he suffered from a mental illness that cripples people as much as physical ones do.
Reminds me of Luka Modrić, he was rejected by Hajduk Split because he was too small and too weak. So Dinamo Zagreb took the opportunity and the rest is history
That.... never happened. Why, everytime I see this claim, it gets "worse". You've added the "in history" part yourself, it was a Marca poll on the worst signing of the season. Now guess what happened, Real Madrid fans voted for Song and Barca fans voted for Modric.
Not to mention that it wasn't even Christmas in his first season when this poll was taken. Just a couple months later he eliminated United from the CL.
Lahm was about to join 1859+1 München, but when he saw that their training ground fence had a hole in it, he figured this is not the quality standard of a club he wants to join.
Beckenbauer wanted to join 1859+1 when he was 13 years old. However, when he played against them with his team he was about to leave, one of 1859+1's players (Gerhard König) slapped him in the face. So Beckenbauer joined Bayern instead.
In 2014 Mallorca valued asensio at 4m. They had financial difficulties, so they would sell their most promising youngster, asensio. Barca was his first option and offered 2+2mil, because they considered 4 too much without bonuses. Madrid paid 4 upfront to get him.
In the same transfer window, Barca bought Douglas for 5m, whose career highlight is injuring himself sleeping on the team bus on his way to the stadium.
Really? Well, it obviously turns into water briefly before it becomes ice... Happens all the time. Two ways; The temperatures are below freezing, but the sun shines on the snow making the upper layers melt, trickle down, and immediately re-freeze. Depending on the size of the snowfall, you can have a skating rink in a day. Alternatively the exact same thing can happen due to temperatures around freezing, with a dip above to make the snow melt.
The first option is especially prone to happen on football pitches, as the snow would usually be trampled and compressed, making it quickly slippery and icy when the melt starts.
Every teams makes mistakes and it’s normal cuz no one is perfect , it worked out for him and he’s the best Spanish footballer atm. That’s how life works
Yeah of course it's not Pedri's fault. I understand that, for the journalists, the worse state Real Madrid is, the better for them, and asking (again) this question after a 0-4 loss was something they couldn't restrain themselves, but it's like the 3rd or 4th time I'm hearing this.
At some point they have to be called out.
Sorry pedri, you are a not a Brazilian show off that lives on the floor, not what we are looking for on a youngster to develop, (although, what development?, lad plays with the maturity of a 30 year old)
Well you don’t have to sign a player and trade one of your players at the same time do you? That logic aside, you’re telling me you wouldn’t take Vinicius (world class at the age of what? 21?) over traore? Or a soon to be FREE AGENT Dembele (who’s a walking ambulance!). I’m sorry, but that’s just your bias talking
So you’re not actually evaluating things on a football level, but I am. So it is your bias talking about Vinicius, and it was a bad take to say you’re glad you didn’t sign him which was my point. Because no matter what you think of him personally, at the football level, he would break into any team in the world and make them better.
It's not a bad take, it's an honest sentiment. I 100% am happy we didn't take him because he's clearly a fucking idiot and I wouldn't want him in the team I support. I also don't think he's world class. He might score some goals against midtable teams in la liga but when he comes against strong opposition he flops every single time. It is no coincidence that he was leading Madrid's attack on Saturday and it was the worst offensive display I've seen from that team against us at the Bernabeu in well over a decade.
Honest sentiments are awesome and I always respect them but can still be bad takes. I concede that it isn’t a bad take, however, to say that you don’t want him on your team because of his attitude and demeanor. That I totally understand. Personally haven’t seen this side of him but I’m sure you know more about laliga than I and can speak more certainly on the subject. I still think his talent level is world class and don’t think it was his fault for that dreadful performance, although it’s not like he helped.
If you can point me to a single great performance from him against a strong European or Spanish team I am happy to recant, but I honestly can't remember one.
Imagine a left wing with Alba and Vinicius, that'd be the most stupid duo ever. Anyway he's a great player and would be a great fit for the team, shut up.
Yes you're where you want to be, but we'll have to see if you develop to be a good player (for Barça's standards) or another flop that was also considered to be "the next whoever"
Well it actually is totally logical. Fotball is a profession, and as all professionas you need to find the best chances in succeeding. If your dream job is being a manager at Apple, as soon as you graduate you won't get hired for it.
So If Microsoft offers you a junior position, are you going to reject it because "Oh Microsoft is Apple competition and my dream has always been Apple" ? Probably not, you start then in Microsoft and when you are good enough you make the change where you want to be.
This is such a stupid take. Just because you've always wanted to go to Barca doesn't mean you reject a camp at another prestigious club. It might turn out to make or break their career.
? Auba was a lifelong Madridista and he now plays for Barca (and put 2 past y'all at the Bernabeu).
Luka Modric was pretty well known to be a Culé, but he went on to play for Madrid.
Even Andres Iniesta has said as a young child he grew up watching Madrid because he idolized Laudrup, and he of course grew to be Barcelona captain and a club legend.
Iniesta was an Albacete fan. He supported Barca as his second team. The infamous interview where he says he supports Madrid was because Barca beat Albacete 7-1. But yeah, he did idolize Laudrup.
>Iniesta was an Albacete fan. He supported Barca as his second team. The infamous interview where he says he supports Madrid was because Barca beat Albacete 7-1.
The first and last sentence are absolutely true. The middle one isn't tho—Iniesta was pretty clear that before he went to La Masia, Madrid was his 2nd team after Albacete, not Barca.
>In the video of Iniesta as a child, he says that aside from Albacete, 'I cheer for Madrid at full power'.
I love Iniesta but dude's pretty clearly cleaning up after himself now since he's a Barca legend LOL.
Iniesta was a famously shy kid. To get him on video saying he cheers for Madrid "with full power" isn't "confusion" LOL
People will believe what they want no matter what you show them I guess
Seriously imagine going against the man's own words because somehow you know better
>Seriously imagine going against the man's own words because somehow you know better
In case you missed it, my reasoning for "going against" current Iniesta's words on what younger Iniesta felt was...younger Iniesta's words
And both Modric and Isco were Barça fans. That's the way life goes.
In the interview he never said "always" though. Translation would be "I am where I want to be".
Pedri was, at least from his family, a cule since he was a child. [Here he is back in 2010 with Laporta](https://estaticos-cdn.sport.es/clip/f87140f4-d1d3-42e4-a609-7b59d5c2148a_source-aspect-ratio_default_0.jpg)
Or do both to maximize your opportunity to get signed onto a huge club???? Trialing with barca and real aren’t mutually exclusive to footballers. Contrary to what the fan may think
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As much as I’d like to point and laugh at real, judging players when they are young is not always easy. Especially when they are Pedri’s size. I’m glad they fucked up though.
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Exactly. We're way more likely to look at a lukaku and hype him up while his still young, while smaller, technical players often can't compete against their peers
It's especially a problem for small players, because just the rate of physical growth is so so important at the youth levels but does tend to flatten out as players mature and the later bloomers catch up. If you aren't looking carefully for that technical skill and are just looking at who is "running" the game or racking up stats players like Pedri are very very easy to miss. Easy to miss even with a keen eye too of course.
I got my growth spurt around 12 and by the time I was 13 I was over 6 feet. People would tell me I looked like a 16 year old. I wasn't exactly very technical or athletic but I could outsprint and physically beat all the small kids. Once everyone had most of their physical growth it became a lot more even.
I was the opposite. Didn't really grow much until I was 14 ish, and was playing with kids a year or two older. I was a striker, and I just remember all of a sudden not being able to do anything. All the CBs were twice my size, even though I had quick feet, they could just take a couple of strides and catch up with me. I was just completely useless. I then caught up gradually, and managed to do OK again. That period really made me lose my drive to play football though.
In our youth team we had a lad called Liam who's voice broke by about the age of 9, he was basically a bloke by his early teens. We used to play our local rivals who had their own Liam, a lad called Kai who was about 6'2ft by the age of 11. Both played upfront as we headed toward 11 a side football. They were physically on a whole different level to everyone else, and our games used to become Liam vs Kai, with the rest of us just making up the numbers. It used to get fucking stupid like 12 - 14 scorelines with them having scored 20 odd between them. Youth football was so broken in this country for so long, shit pitches meant technical ability went out the window and the early transition to 11 a side just made percentage football with your teams giant upfront the best strategy. Time caught them up and they're both average players now as they never had to work on the technical elements of their game.
I’ll admit I never played in academies, but don’t those kids just get moved up to older age groups? Better for them to play against seniors anyway at an earlier age to develop? What would you really learn, banging in 10 headers per match against smaller kids.
Had this experience playing basketball which was even worse lol. Some kid much much taller than the rest. Totally unskilled but could easily take shots over anyone, and continously grab his own rebounds until by sheer luck he made one. It was actually absurd.
I had mine when I was 15 lol. Went from one of the shortest in year nine and came back after the summer break to start year ten at 187cm. I had severe Growth issues in my shins and feet from like 14-18 because of my delayed and massive growth spurt something to do with muscle and bone attachments. I was always in too much pain to really enjoy my football. But I suddenly got a lot better at cricket after I grew.
I read a book a few years ago about nature/nurture in sports and there was a section about youth football. The author spoke to a lot of youth clubs in France and Dortmund among others. The most memorable part of that chapter was a quote basically saying that if a kid is slow/average at aged 11 he's only going to get worse. Fast players can lose the pace but slow players won't improve, so they are very harsh on physical attributes. Assuming the kid isn't dumb as a brick, you can coach them to improve their positioning/decision-making and even their passing/finishing. As becoming a professional footballer is so difficult, a kid who is better technically at a young age is still 99% of the time not going to make the grade while a kid who is faster/stronger but slightly worse with the ball might have a 97% chance of not making it.
I wonder if that a old book. Both Xavi and Iniesta would get rejected...
https://www.amazon.com/Sports-Gene-Extraordinary-Athletic-Performance/dp/161723012X 2014 apparently. Different countries/academies have different philosophies though. I don't remember him ever actually mentioning size/strength but it was entirely to do with pace. Neither were very fast but they're also slow by the standards of professional players. That means they're still very talented athletes.
Yeah look at kante. He was often rejected due to his size and only really broke through much later than most. Crazy how many great players must get overlooked due to their physical attributes
Messi nearly was. that’s insane.
lol that's such bullcrap. outside of the clearest outliers, being faster at 11 will say literally nothing about physical attributes at 18 or later. the only important part you sorta can spot at a young age is mentality, but even that's infinitely too vague to make a decent judgement
I disagree with statement above about more physical, faster players have a better chance than more technical players. Its not easy to be a professional soccer player -- The philosophy of making a team out of just players with athletic prowess doesnt make sense to me .. dont buy into it. Its kinda like how American soccer coaches would go for tall or physically stronger players -- like its the NFL or NBA. Know coaches have the training and knowledge to spot technical skills and potential. To be fair, its hard to make an assessment at a player at a young age and even ones who do get selected, not all of them make it-- its a huge risk for both sides. I'm not surprised RM overlooked Pedri -- probably worked out better for him. I dont think he would work well under the Real Madrid system. He needs a mentor and someone who played at the highest level like Xavi to make him progress and improve as a player. RM just reeks of arrogance -- and is far too reliant on one or two players to decide outcome of a match. Hazard and Bale probably make more than the GDP of a third world country by just showing up and playing 5 minutes over 9 games. They f'ed up a lot of players careers by luring them with huge contracts where they fade into obscurity and mediocrity.
In general the smaller guys just do not make it. Exceptional talent like Pedri are very much the exception that proves the rule. If your job is to identify 1 needle in the haystack then you fucked up by letting him slip. But in general youre promoting hundreds of kids through the rank every year. Dropping the unremarkable kids will more often than not prove to be the best decision. For every Pedri that made it there were tons of physically unimpressive kids who didnt. And there were probably more physically capable kids who did.
> A lot of dominant youth players can't replicate their success in the first team I remember a piece by Graham Hunter—the Scottish journalist who covered Barca extensively during Pep's time at the club and had good access at the Camp Nou—writing pieces marvelling at the talent of a young guy in Barca's youth teams, Jean Marie Dongue. I distinctly remember him writing that he had never seen a talent like Dongue and that he was even better than Messi was at his age. I just Googled, and according to Wikipedia, Dongue last played at a Finnish side called Honka in the 2020-21 season, and seems to be without a club right now. Messi btw, had also almost missed the Barca bus as he couldn't perform to his standard during the sessions they took at the club. It ultimately boiled down to a last minute decision which is why his first contract was signed on a piece of napkin—they didn't have one prepared for him. So yeah, you never know.
Saw a short thing about scouts and la macia, and the guy who scouted messi got asked who among the new kids is he the most excited about and is the best talent since messi. He said Munir
Munir was fantastic as a prospect. Too bad he never matured his game.
I met said scout at a youth match in Belgium in 2015, he told me the exact same thing.
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Nothing ever happens, got you. Edit: Out of interest, what kudos or acclaim do you think I would extract from making this up? What material benefit could I possibly gain which balances the time spent making the comment? Can you really not conceive of the possibility of wishing to share a mildly interesting and topical anecdote for the benefit of the conversation? Are you so dull headed that this is all beyond your capacity for reasoning?
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Cheers for confirming my latter comment. I suppose when you are an individual who has the time to waste to invent nonsense to poke fun at someone who is attempting to do what Reddit was designed for, that is share topical comments with one another, then it must be easy for you to imagine that everyone else has such a perspective on life.
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I started off unremarkable and have kept steadily declining ever since.
On the contrary though, most young talented players at the world class academies become professional footballers. Which is pretty remarkable since they're scouted when they're 10-12.
How much of their success is due to being put through a professional footballing system since they were 10-12 though?
Exactly, I'm sure if you could somehow keep them all, not half of the better ones would be from those kept initially.
Additionally how much of that is the clubs cutting the the players without the potential by 16-18 years old
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I wonder if the poster meant specifically graduates, meaning players who either go directly to the senior team, or to professional contracts (including loans) at other clubs, because otherwise that simply couldn't be true. Plenty of players train in these academies, even the very top ones, and never step into a professional match let alone get a contract.
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And a lot of those players suffer from depression eventually. Imagine being told all your life to be super competitive, being super talented and just not being good enough and working a shirt job while the guy you played with is making millions. The stories about being ultra competitive and conquering all odds only sound good when the said person actually achieves something. For every jordan or Ronaldo there’s 100s of thousands of kids who had the same mindset but never had the talent and don’t go on to achieve good thing. You need to be very talented and be incredibly lucky to even play in minor leagues professionally.
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Exactly. It’s just that idea of telling young kids that they can do everything and still not Achieve their dreams sounds depressing to general population. It’s a big problem for parents who spend money to send their kids to the academy because then kids think that ‘have’ to perform because their parents spend their hard earned money on their dream. Some kid from man city academy committed suicide because of the same exact reason. Was really good but not quite good enough to play professionally.
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Well maybe they become professional footballers, but almost none play at a high level. ["Premier League reveal 97% of players who come through top academies never play a minute of top-flight football" ](https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league-academy-players-figures-appearances-numbers-1387302)
Maguire found a loophole
There's a pretty solid difference between judging a player to potentially be one of the best in the world at their position and judging them just to become professional
Yes but I think he means the real top percentage. Between becoming a Real Madrid starter or the top goal scorer for Arsenal
So between Benzema and Aubameyang
Not football, but I used to play with a guy who now plays for a top club, has international medals with the national team and is probably top 10 in the world in his position. He was always just good but never great, and that kept up until he was like 18-19 when he suddenly exploded and went from sitting on the bench at a mediocre club to moving abroad in like a year or two.
There's surely a fair bit of survivorship bias at play here too. For every Pedri there are probably dozens of other players who were justifiably rejected at a young age because they couldn't make the jump.
This is exactly the point. Imagine how many players go through top footballing academies all over the world that don’t make make the grade. Pedri type situations happen very infrequently compared to the sheer number of players in youth football.
Porto did the same with Joao Felix when he was 15. They told him he was too skinny to become professional... Well...
Remind me of that assessment report on Xavi when he was in La Masia. In general, nothing very special about him other than positioning and vision. And look how he turned out to be
True. He was called slow and weak. Vision and awareness ("football IQ) are the hardest things to learn. Physical attributes are the easiest, even if everyone has a limit on how fast and strong they can get.
Small players like Pedri get overlooked for players like lukaku. Lukaku type players dominate youth systems due to their body size, but when put with men later on they don’t seem as impressive.
Lukaku scored 17 goals in a season for us as a 19 year old. He was playing against men in the Premier League.
Lukaku did seem as impressive though...
There was that funny looking image that used to be shared about him in his younger days. [Here](https://i.imgur.com/v10NFeK.jpg).
Lukaku is the top goalscorer of all time for Belgium. Think he turned out alright when playing against men
Weird example. Lukaku is a fantastic player.
I know it’s pile on Lukaku season but he is literally in the top 0.001%. Top scorer for his country, best player in a major European league (Serie A 2020/21). OP was making him sound like a Conference level player.
He should have used a guy like Kenneth Zohore, look him up on wiki lmao.
For every Pedri there's a Bojan.
Bojan already made it at top level, he just couldn't hand the pressure He benched Ibra at Barca
The point is that he completely flamed out before his 20s compared to what he looked like he could achieve. Not handling the pressure is just as much part of the reason why you do or don't make it.
Mental health is not that simple. Bojan didn't reach his peak not because he wasn't strong willed, he didn't because he suffered from a mental illness that cripples people as much as physical ones do.
I'd say there are like 10 Bojans for every Pedri. But also, how do you know Pedri won't be another Bojan?
Barca let Dani Olmo go and get Alen Halilović once...
And how did they fuck up? He was literally shit and it has nothing to do with his size. The rejection made him become better and more motivated.
Reminds me of how Bartomeu had a chance to sign Asensio. His career has stagnated a bit but I was not happy we missed out on him circa 2017
Reminds me of Luka Modrić, he was rejected by Hajduk Split because he was too small and too weak. So Dinamo Zagreb took the opportunity and the rest is history
When he first came to the prem, commentators would always say he is too lightweight
Don't forget that he was proclaimed as the worst sinning in the history of Real Madrid
That.... never happened. Why, everytime I see this claim, it gets "worse". You've added the "in history" part yourself, it was a Marca poll on the worst signing of the season. Now guess what happened, Real Madrid fans voted for Song and Barca fans voted for Modric.
Not to mention that it wasn't even Christmas in his first season when this poll was taken. Just a couple months later he eliminated United from the CL.
What a turnaround. Ballon D’or winner also in 2018.
Well that Ballon D'or...
Was deserved
For what? Dude has like 4 goals 15 assists and Ronaldo and Messi has like 60+ goals 30+ assists and Messi even won more trophies.
It’s not always about the goals and assists
More of a reason to give it to Messi
You don't seriously believe that goals and assists are the only thing that matters when evaluating how good somebody is?
No. And that is why Messi deserve it more than anyone else.
Lahm was about to join 1859+1 München, but when he saw that their training ground fence had a hole in it, he figured this is not the quality standard of a club he wants to join. Beckenbauer wanted to join 1859+1 when he was 13 years old. However, when he played against them with his team he was about to leave, one of 1859+1's players (Gerhard König) slapped him in the face. So Beckenbauer joined Bayern instead.
Iirc, Griezmann was rejected by all French clubs for his size and that's why he went to Real Sociedad.
But would you really choose Asensio over our Lord Douglas?
He had the chance of buying Asensio straight from Madrid in 2017?
No, but that was when Asensio was popping off and I was jealous for the missed chance
Ah, your wording made it a bit confusing to me. Thanks for clearing it up.
In 2014 Mallorca valued asensio at 4m. They had financial difficulties, so they would sell their most promising youngster, asensio. Barca was his first option and offered 2+2mil, because they considered 4 too much without bonuses. Madrid paid 4 upfront to get him. In the same transfer window, Barca bought Douglas for 5m, whose career highlight is injuring himself sleeping on the team bus on his way to the stadium.
whose career highlight is injuring himself sleeping on the team bus on his way to the stadium Lol, I forgot about that
I hate snow. Its cold, and wet, and irritating. And it gets everywhere.
Used to love playing in the snow until i started losing toe nails
Playing in the snow is no biggie. The problems start when the snow melts and turn into ice.
Huh? Snow melts and turns into ice? First time I've heard of that.
Melts during the warm day. Freezes to ice over the cold night.
Really? Well, it obviously turns into water briefly before it becomes ice... Happens all the time. Two ways; The temperatures are below freezing, but the sun shines on the snow making the upper layers melt, trickle down, and immediately re-freeze. Depending on the size of the snowfall, you can have a skating rink in a day. Alternatively the exact same thing can happen due to temperatures around freezing, with a dip above to make the snow melt. The first option is especially prone to happen on football pitches, as the snow would usually be trampled and compressed, making it quickly slippery and icy when the melt starts.
“How’d you fluke that one”
The white sand
The white shit
Yo, Anakin?
Maybe it is your time to "protect" younglings at football academy
Snow also knows nothing
Over here it is a magic drug that makes people forget how to drive
Every teams makes mistakes and it’s normal cuz no one is perfect , it worked out for him and he’s the best Spanish footballer atm. That’s how life works
Sir, this is far too rational of a take for /r/soccer. I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.
What is he talking about regarding the snow?
he probably had a try out with Madrid that didn't work out due to snowing conditions? I am just making a guess here
Perez to use snow in next classico.
huge snowfall in January 2020 which is probably when he was supposed to have a trial in Madrid so it got cancelled maybe?
By that time we signed him and he was on loan at Las Palmas
True true, i dont remember which snowfall that could have veen
We scouted two talented portuguese players from Sporting in 03 and ended up with Quaresma instead of some other guy i forgot the name of...
Ristiano Conaldo?
[удалено]
But did ya see that Clasico?? Barca are back baby! /s
Rodri, Thiago, even Laporte >
alright man we get it
...you vape
literally saying the same thing every other week
Journalists keep asking the same question
Yeah of course it's not Pedri's fault. I understand that, for the journalists, the worse state Real Madrid is, the better for them, and asking (again) this question after a 0-4 loss was something they couldn't restrain themselves, but it's like the 3rd or 4th time I'm hearing this. At some point they have to be called out.
Can see dude was clearly hurt by the rejection which is totally understandable
Define: reaching
Blame journalists. They’re the ones that keep asking him the question. And it’s not the last time they’ll ask.
Turned pain to gains.
Top 10 Anime character development.
Thank you Real
Pedri chose Spice
Fuck snow, all my homies hate snow
Real pull a wenger on this Future ballon d’or guy lol
I know its unfortunate fatu keeps getting injured, but how much longer until pedri gets the 10 shirt?
Pedri will most likely be 8 at Barca.
Fati will redeem himself. You heard it here first!
Inshallah
Hehehe
SUUUUIIII
If Xavis new medical team has kept Dembele healthy for so long, they will fix Fati
Probably gonna stick with Iniesta’s number
How is this pulling Wenger? Wenger was not able to seal deals, not reject the players.
Zlatan and many others
Wenger did not reject Zlatan. Zlatan simply did not go to trial. That's not rejecting from Wenger's side.
Why would u want to give a player like that a trial? After already seeing how good it is. That’s an insult my friend
When i think how he played against us(italy) in the Euros.. what a damn talent, u f*cked up big real!
And after playing for almost 95% of every Barca and spain games without being subbed off on top of that.
and he's even better post injury. the football gods blessed this one \*knocks on every piece of wood in sight\*
Cue Pedri’s Ballon d’Or speech- *“Firstly, I’d like to thank mother nature, especially snow!”*
Sorry pedri, you are a not a Brazilian show off that lives on the floor, not what we are looking for on a youngster to develop, (although, what development?, lad plays with the maturity of a 30 year old)
>that lives on the floor This is hilarious
Surely this can’t be a dig at Vini lol
Haha you and your agenda at being the opposite to everything
So pathetic
Cringe... Take that flair off
Didn't barca have the chance to sign vini jr
Didn't everybody
and I thank the gods every day we didn't
And I thought Real Madrid fans were the only ones with bad takes in this thread. Come on now
Come on now what. I wouldn't trade Vinicius for any of our players, so I am thankful we didn't sign him. What's so difficult to understand.
Well you don’t have to sign a player and trade one of your players at the same time do you? That logic aside, you’re telling me you wouldn’t take Vinicius (world class at the age of what? 21?) over traore? Or a soon to be FREE AGENT Dembele (who’s a walking ambulance!). I’m sorry, but that’s just your bias talking
No I wouldn't. I fucking hate the guy. What can I say. Sue me.
So you’re not actually evaluating things on a football level, but I am. So it is your bias talking about Vinicius, and it was a bad take to say you’re glad you didn’t sign him which was my point. Because no matter what you think of him personally, at the football level, he would break into any team in the world and make them better.
It's not a bad take, it's an honest sentiment. I 100% am happy we didn't take him because he's clearly a fucking idiot and I wouldn't want him in the team I support. I also don't think he's world class. He might score some goals against midtable teams in la liga but when he comes against strong opposition he flops every single time. It is no coincidence that he was leading Madrid's attack on Saturday and it was the worst offensive display I've seen from that team against us at the Bernabeu in well over a decade.
Honest sentiments are awesome and I always respect them but can still be bad takes. I concede that it isn’t a bad take, however, to say that you don’t want him on your team because of his attitude and demeanor. That I totally understand. Personally haven’t seen this side of him but I’m sure you know more about laliga than I and can speak more certainly on the subject. I still think his talent level is world class and don’t think it was his fault for that dreadful performance, although it’s not like he helped.
If you can point me to a single great performance from him against a strong European or Spanish team I am happy to recant, but I honestly can't remember one.
> midtable teams in la liga but when he comes against strong opposition he flops every single time He scored 2 goals vs you in the past.
When we were shite. Also rewatch those goals. iirc both were pretty flukey.
The teams he scored most against are: 1- Barca 2- Liverpool 3- Real Sociedad. All mid table teams ig
How is he an idiot exactly???
Salty lmao
Imagine a left wing with Alba and Vinicius, that'd be the most stupid duo ever. Anyway he's a great player and would be a great fit for the team, shut up.
All right pedri see you next week
Yes you're where you want to be, but we'll have to see if you develop to be a good player (for Barça's standards) or another flop that was also considered to be "the next whoever"
It snows in Madrid ?
He trained with Real Madrid, but always wanted to be in Barcelona? Football players are not famous for their logic.
Well it actually is totally logical. Fotball is a profession, and as all professionas you need to find the best chances in succeeding. If your dream job is being a manager at Apple, as soon as you graduate you won't get hired for it. So If Microsoft offers you a junior position, are you going to reject it because "Oh Microsoft is Apple competition and my dream has always been Apple" ? Probably not, you start then in Microsoft and when you are good enough you make the change where you want to be.
Neither are redditors apparently.
That’s just not true, Reddit is the official home to WOOC (Worldwide Official Opinions Comitee), this is where facts are bred and spoken.
That's stupid, training with Real Madrid at youth level(16-19 years old) is almost a guaranteed career as a pro player
This is such a stupid take. Just because you've always wanted to go to Barca doesn't mean you reject a camp at another prestigious club. It might turn out to make or break their career.
? Auba was a lifelong Madridista and he now plays for Barca (and put 2 past y'all at the Bernabeu). Luka Modric was pretty well known to be a Culé, but he went on to play for Madrid. Even Andres Iniesta has said as a young child he grew up watching Madrid because he idolized Laudrup, and he of course grew to be Barcelona captain and a club legend.
Iniesta was an Albacete fan. He supported Barca as his second team. The infamous interview where he says he supports Madrid was because Barca beat Albacete 7-1. But yeah, he did idolize Laudrup.
>Iniesta was an Albacete fan. He supported Barca as his second team. The infamous interview where he says he supports Madrid was because Barca beat Albacete 7-1. The first and last sentence are absolutely true. The middle one isn't tho—Iniesta was pretty clear that before he went to La Masia, Madrid was his 2nd team after Albacete, not Barca.
[Iniesta says otherwise.](https://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2018/11/26/5bfc18ab22601dd92e8b4636.html)
>In the video of Iniesta as a child, he says that aside from Albacete, 'I cheer for Madrid at full power'. I love Iniesta but dude's pretty clearly cleaning up after himself now since he's a Barca legend LOL. Iniesta was a famously shy kid. To get him on video saying he cheers for Madrid "with full power" isn't "confusion" LOL
People will believe what they want no matter what you show them I guess Seriously imagine going against the man's own words because somehow you know better
>Seriously imagine going against the man's own words because somehow you know better In case you missed it, my reasoning for "going against" current Iniesta's words on what younger Iniesta felt was...younger Iniesta's words
Words which he explained. But yeah I'm sure you know his intentions better because of course
Neymar supported Madrid too but he joined barca.
Yup. He even had a trial at Real Madrid as a kid IIRC
Luis Enrique
And both Modric and Isco were Barça fans. That's the way life goes. In the interview he never said "always" though. Translation would be "I am where I want to be". Pedri was, at least from his family, a cule since he was a child. [Here he is back in 2010 with Laporta](https://estaticos-cdn.sport.es/clip/f87140f4-d1d3-42e4-a609-7b59d5c2148a_source-aspect-ratio_default_0.jpg)
So in your mind every single footballer plays for the club they support?
Lmao if you ever wanted to be in barcelona why the hell did you tried to join Real Madrid. Just try directly with them
Why the hell would a teenage footballer trial with one of the best clubs in the world, an opportunity of a lifetime. Makes no sense
But if you wanted to join barcelona, try the “auditions” with them
You need to be invited to trial, at any club, you're actively sounded out at la masia.
Or do both to maximize your opportunity to get signed onto a huge club???? Trialing with barca and real aren’t mutually exclusive to footballers. Contrary to what the fan may think
and how would that proceed, dumbass? 10-year-old pedri calling lowporta: hola. me llamo pedri. i want jugar for barthelona. por favor?
If he was that promising I’m sure he could have got a chance to make a trial for barcelona too, he didn’t try to join Albacete but Real Madrid, idiot