The Dream Teen

Talent continues to flow out of La Masia. In Tuesday’s Champions League game with Dynamo Kyiv there were no fewer than seven products of the Barça youth system in the starting line-up (Oscar Mingueza, Eric García, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Nico González, Gavi and Ansu Fati), as well as Ronald Araujo (who was never at La Masía but did spend two years with Barça B) and Alejandro Balde, who came on in the second half.

That’s no fewer than seven players aged under 22 years who featured in the win in Ukraine, three of them still teenagers: Ansu Fati (19), Nico González (19) and Gavi (17). It’s the first time a team from La Liga has started a Champions League game with three under 20s. What’s more, one of them, Ansu, scored the only goal of the game and was named MVP, and Nico and Gavi were both outstanding in midfield.

Teenage kicks

Three teenagers is a Barça record. But there have been four previous cases with two:

2011/12 v BATE Borisov (4-0)
Sergi Roberto (19) and Rafinha (18)

2014/15 v APOEL Nicosia (1-0)
Sergi Samper (19) and Munir (19)

2020/21 v Ferencváros (5-1)
Dest (19) and Ansu Fati (17)

2020/21 v Dynamo Kyiv (2-1)
Pedri (17) and Ansu (18)

Gunners hold the record

The record for teenagers in a starting XI is held by Arsenal in a game against Olympiacos in 2009 (Wilshere (17), Cruise (18), Bartley (18), Ramsey (18) and Fran Mérida (19)).

Anderlecht, Dynamo Zagreb and Monaco have all started games with four teenagers.