Barcelona duo tops CIES list as most experienced youngsters, securing 1st and 2nd place | OneFootball

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Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi were the two youngsters who exploded with the FC Barcelona first team in the last season. The Spanish duo joined Xavi’s team at various points of the season but needed only a handful of appearances to cement their places in the starting eleven.

Furthermore, they also went on to make their debut with the senior Spain side in the last year. Yamal is already one of the trusted starters for Luis de la Fuente, while Cubarsi remains hopping between the senior side and the youth-level sides.

The fact that both of these players showed their talents at such young ages was truly a surprise. Not many players are able to stand up against vastly more experienced players as well as these two did, and they are also now quite seasoned players for Barcelona.

The fact that these two players are playing at a level quite higher than other players of their age group is also recognized by top data gatherers and analyzers in football.

As Mundo Deportivo has reported, CIES Football Observatory, a website that presents highly reliable data and analysis on football players, has released a list of the most experienced young players, and Yamal and Cubarsi are at the top of their rankings.

To measure this experience, the group took into account the number of minutes played in official matches last year, which were weighted by the sporting level of these matches. With these criteria, Yamal came up to be the most experienced youngster, having 2.75 times more experience than his age and position fellows.

Pau Cubarsi stood second with a rating of 2.42, which is 0.33 less than Yamal, and only 0.01 higher than the Real Madrid youngster Endrick. Other notable names in this list included Warren Zaire-Emery, Kobbie Mainoo, Archie Gray, Guillaume Restes, Joao Neves, etc.