Konrad De La Fuente will be available for selection in Barcelona’s UEFA Champions League tie with Napoli.
The La Liga side announced its Matchday squad on Friday for Saturday’s second leg at the Camp Nou, with De La Fuente getting the call. He will look to make his senior debut for the Catalan side on Europe’s biggest stage. Barcelona is tied with Napoli 1-1 on aggregate, holding the away goal tiebreaker.
De La Fuente, 19, has been training with Barcelona’s first team due to several senior players being out injured. Should he make his debut, his buyout clause would rise from €50 million to 100 million after signing a new contract back in late June.
The U.S. Under-20 Men’s National Team player was promoted to Barcelona’s B team in May and came close to helping them achieve promotion to the Segunda Division this summer. De La Fuente scored three goals and added one assist in six combined appearances for Barcelona B, while also featuring in the UEFA Youth League in 2019.
Barcelona will be without midfielders Sergio Busquets and Arturo Vidal, whom are missing due to suspension. Defender Samuel Umtiti and forward Ousmane Dembele are both injured while fellow forward Martin Braithwaite is not eligible due to not being in the UCL roster.
Advancement for Barcelona will see them take part in the competition’s final stages in Portugal later this month.
This is a huge accomplishment for Konrad and shows he has been working hard with the Barca “B” team. Even if he doesn’t see the field it is a positive for this kid.
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For those who are advocating for his inclusion with the USMNT….there is a massive difference between making the bench for club (who see you every day) and earning a place in a national team camp. He’s worth keeping an eye on for a future USMNT “B” Team camp, but until he’s at least coming off the bench in competitive 1st team matches he’s not ready.
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The same rules apply to Uli, Ledezma, Mendez, Gloster, Richards, and the rest of our young promising prospects. If they want to be considered for the USMNT “A” Team they need to be seeing the field for their clubs 1st teams (or loaned to clubs).
I’d like to see some these guys be part of the Gold Cub team….since it will give them an extended audition….but even that may not be possible if they don’t start seeing the field.
He’s still only played 7 pro matches for Barca B. He’s pretty far down the team sheet once the season turns over. The big 3 obviously are going to start whenever healthy, then they have Fati who played with Konrad with U19s that is above him, they signed Trincao from Braga and Pedri (who starred in Segunda) who’s 17. If he plays all season with Barca B, I’d have no problem if he played the GC but it sounds like the Olympic squad is going to be given precedent. He is also still eligible for the U20 WC next May.
The imperative moron strikes again, unabashedly pontificating
This is a big moment for Konrad but even bigger for Haitian-Americans!! Sak Pase! Jozy has been great, not Barcelona 1st team great. Regardless of injuries to other players, any minute at 19 years old for THAT club would be worth bragging. Think about it, it wasn’t that long ago, some of us thought Ben Lederman would’ve broken thru Barca by now.
Holy cow. Kid must be so excited. Just being on that bench even. Anyone know the odds of him getting any minutes today?
Pretty unlikely, Suarez, Fati, and Messi will start and if Griezman can go he’d be first choice off the bench. After that though there aren’t really any traditional wing attacking players so maybe or if Griezman doesn’t feel good in warm ups. If Barca is up a couple goals he might get a cameo in the final minutes.
So tired of your revisionist history, Weah made choices to help with his club situation at Celtic and transfer, Reyna wanted to go to U17 WC, Konrad was ok playing up an age group at U20 WC but was not ready for NT in ‘19. Not to mention Konrad is there because of a slew of injuries and contract issues. I watched all of Konrad’s pre-pandemic matches with Barca B, he was not ready last fall. Berhalter rates all of these guys and has said so publicly.
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As for Brooks, yeah he has some head scratching moments but please name a player in our pool that you have actually watched that doesn’t. Plus do you really think you can judge talent better than Klinsmann, Arena, Sarachan, Berhalter, and three or four Bundesliga managers that have all chosen him as their regular starting CB.
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You are correct Roldan isn’t good. Boyd is a regular starter for a team that qualified for the Champions League so maybe there’s something there.
I thought he was one of the more interesting if inconsistent U20s. Per usual GB is behind the curve on this one as well.
To make my more blunt point, I think GB favors first team minutes, veteranness, and incumbency. And so Boyd and Roldan have a degree of security from job competition more than they deserve. I think they have both proven meh and you have Weah and this kid and others sitting around watching them. Club snobs do this weird thing where having endorsed competition and certain clubs they seem oddly reticent about promoting the NT fortunes of the incipient players from those same programs. Thus they overrate Brooks but underrate Reyna and the like. And all I am saying is have them in camp and give them a 10-30 min cameo to show they are as good or better than the veterans who split with Canada and were swept by Mexico. The team is only going to improve when these prospect upgrade players either mature into roles over time or are fast tracked.