Barcelona midfielder’s former coach sees him becoming the club’s ‘new Puyol’ | OneFootball

FC Barcelona have been blessed to see some great talents emerge from their academy over the years. The Catalan club, now focusing on their roots once again, are seeing new promises emerge regularly. Fortunately for Barcelona, this seems to have been the right move.

Even this season, many of the team’s most impressive performers have emerged from the youth academy itself. This includes Marc Casado, a 21-year-old Spanish midfielder who has become a pivotal addition to Hansi Flick’s Barcelona, even making them forget their previously urgent needs to sign a new defensive midfielder.

However, a former youth-level coach of Marc Casado believes that his destiny lies beyond simply being a great player. Oscar Lopez, who formerly coached the Barcelona youngster between 2019 and 2021 for three years, revealed even more about Casado in a recent interview with SPORT.

For Lopez, Casado was always an intelligent player with natural talent to back him up:

“Even as a Cadete player, Marc had great game reading, intensity, and tactical intelligence, but I noticed his game lacked a bit of edge.”

However, over time, his time with Oscar Lopez also helped him add an element of verticality to his game, as the coach himself revealed:

“It’s not a quick process; it’s slow and gradual. It took four to five months before significant progress was visible. However, his attitude was impeccable, and he implemented my suggestions, enriching his game with more decisive and forward-thinking passes.”

Beyond just being an intelligent player, however, Lopez also highlighted how good of an addition Casado was for almost any coach when he was on the pitch:

“With Casadó, you’re dealing with a player who has both talent and incredible commitment. His intelligence allows him to act as an extension of the coach on the field.”

Ultimately, however, Oscar Lopez confessed that he sees Casado as a future captain of Barcelona as well due to his leadership skills, stating that he saw him as a ‘new Puyol’ of sorts for the team moving forward:

“Marc is a positive leader for the group—a player who supports his teammates and is highly valued by both players and coaches… I see Casadó as the future captain of Barça’s first team, the new Puyol who will embody the team’s leadership.”

As for his limits as a player, alongside the ceilings of other academy graduates that Barcelona currently has, Lopez has now doubts about their potential and ability to deliver on it:

“Knowing Marc—and I’d extend this to Lamine, Fermín, Gavi, Cubarsí, and the other academy graduates—I’m confident they won’t stagnate. The only thing that could stop them is injury.”

For now, Casado will be buzzing to come back home to Barcelona after his impressive international break for Spain that gave him his debut and a lot of praise. Now, however, that will need to be channeled towards helping out the Catalan giants as well.