The Wonderkids of La Masia #5

Adriá Bernabé — Spain

Info

Birthday: 26'th May 2001 (12 y/o)

Position: Central midfielder

Been at Barca since: Summer 2013

Nationality: Spanish

Prefered foot: Left

Former club: Espanyol

Favorite number: 8 and 10

Bernabé

Media attention, radio interviews and controversy already surrounding his name: Adrián Bernabé.

As if the “best Alevin A side in history” wasn’t good enough for the club, Barça went out in the summer of 2013 and “stole” the best U12-midfielder (maybe even best player in general) in Spain, Bernabé, from none other than eternal rivals Espanyol.

Adriá was voted MVP in almost every youth tournament he played in 2012/13, against competitors like Kubo and Ansu. Last season, his first season at Barca, he has been complimenting Ansu, Kubo and Adrià Altimira in attack, while adding a more style, flair and flamboyant attitude to the Infantil B midfield. Definitely the signing of the summer at La Masia.

He first showed glimpse of his major talent at his childhood club, Levante Las Plamas, in the small town of Sant Joan Despi in Barcelona, where he started playing football when he was five years old. When he was six, Espanyol snatched him up until Barca knocked on the door this summer, making it impossible for his parents to reject an offer for their son to play at our Cantera.

Barca had been watching him for years and when they decided that this summer was the time to pick up some new fresh young talents from clubs in Barcelona, they decided that Bernabé was the most important player to sign.

The whole timing of the transfer reminds me a lot of the way Iniesta got picked, just from Albacete instead of Espanyol: Same age, same elegancy in style of play, same dominance in Spain’s youth football, same immediate importance to an already strong Alevin A/Infantil B and so on.

Controversy over signing

When Barca seized this gem, Espanyol’s president, Joan Collet, went absolutely nuts and threatened to take legal measures against Barça, but instead of suing the club to FIFA, he imposed strict regulations regarding youth contracts and scouting. In other words, he went out and said that he would give all Espanyol’s biggest talents a contract with an anti-Barça clause.

And you can really understand why he was so mad after letting this player go. Bernabé had been with Espanyol for five years and captained their sublime Alevín A side during 2012/13, which did beat Barça a couple of times in some friendly tournaments and which was inches away from winning the league title ahead of Barça.

For weeks, the whole Catalonian football world was stirred and hyped up about this boy, because how good can you get, when the president of the club himself directly goes mad in public because he couldn’t do anything about the move? What was all the fuss about? Was he really THAT good?

Dominating Spain

That question leads to a simple answer, really: Of course!

Not only has he been captain for many years and been the source for all the success that the Espanyol 2001-generation has had until he left, but he was the main machine of the Catalan national team that won the U-12 Spain inter-region championship beating Logroño in the semis and Andalucía in the final with 3-2 last year and by watching a few clips of him, there is no doubt; he oozes class and pure talent.

This season at Barça there hasn’t been any question about his abilities either. Having a very big reputation to justify, he was assigned to Marcel Sans’ Infantil B side, already featuring big prospect Kubo, Ansu Fati and imposing centre back and captain Eric Garcia. However, he still managed to stand out and impress in pre-season. Having left Espanyol with the MVP trophy of the Danone Nations Cup (his team lost to Levante in the final 1-0), Bernabé kicked off his career as a Blaugrana in similar fashion, winning the Miranda de Ebro tournament with the Infantil B, after the team beat Real Madrid 4-1 in the final. Bernabé, of course, was voted the tournament’s MVP.

Doing extremely well when asked to play several positions in his time at La Masia so far, Bernabé has integrated to the club and it’s playing style very fast, considering such a young age. There are many things that you have to do to perfection if you want to be a midfielder in La Masia and further on in the first team. Bernabé does all these things greatly and as I said, he even adds a bit of magic and flair that makes him so special.

With a left foot that can set the world alight and a right foot with much room for improvement, he provides numerous assists and scores goals with exemplary consistency. For example, in his first three matches with Barca, in the Futbol11 championship, he scored three goals.

People down in Spain are saying that watching him play in midfield with Guille Amor, Nico González and Miguel Vega, is something really spectacular. The 2001 generation is just outstanding, overall. Not only at Barça, but also in general in Spanish football

Bernabé has all the ingredients to become a prototype of a Barca-midfielder and with his leadership-abilities, I’ll be extremely surprised if he won’t be a star midfielder in 15 years time at Barca or even sooner than that. He’s an extraordinary wonderkid and could definitely be a future maestro.

Videos

- Just look at this..

- His last game with Espanyol

- Goal vs. Real Madrid

- Video that I also posted in the last edition, showing Bernabé, Ansu and Kubo’s abilities in a tournament in Japan

- Messi-esque number 1 goal in Barca’s top 5 goals of the week from La Masia

- 4 assists and 1 goal vs Sant Jugat