18-year-old Hungarian goalkeeper now open to extend Barcelona stay | OneFootball

The goalkeeping situation at FC Barcelona has been full of twists and turns this season. Their starting shot-stopper, Marc Andre Ter Stegen, suffered a long-term injury in the initial phases of this season and has been on the sidelines since the match against Villarreal.

Following his injury, Inaki Pena was the starting goalkeeper, but since the start of the new year, Hansi Flick has made Wojciech Szczesny his starting goalkeeper. After a mistake-ridden first few games, the Pole has stabilized a bit in recent matches and is currently the fixed starter between the sticks.

Meanwhile, some of the youth-level goalkeepers at the Catalan club have also been making headlines for the wrong reasons.

Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images for DFB

For instance, the Hungarian Aron Yaakobishvili was aiming not to renew his contract with the Blaugrana club which expires in June, as some reports suggested that he was looking to continue his career away from Barcelona, particularly because he believed it was difficult to make it to the first team.

In fact, he was left out of the squad for the game between Barcelona Juvenil A and Borussia Dortmund’s youth level team in the UEFA Youth League in December to pressure him to negotiate for a new contract.

However, his situation improved significantly afterwards, as he was called up for Hansi Flick’s team for the games against BSC Young Boys, Getafe, Osasuna, and Alaves, and he also started all of the Juvenil A’s matches in the UEFA Youth League.

Thus, Mundo Deportivo reports that following this turn of situation, everything indicates that he is now more willing to seal his prolonged continuity at Barcelona.

In this regard, an important role has been played by his new agent, who is none other than Pini Zahavi, who also represents Hansi Flick and Robert Lewandowski, and has a very good relationship with Barcelona. The Israeli agent approached the Hungarian goalkeeper to change his mind about staying at the Blaugrana club.

For now, it remains to be seen when the goalkeeper will officially sign his new contract. But things are back on track, and it is now much more likely that Yaakobishvili will stay at Barcelona beyond the next summer.