Fab year for Fermín

The revelation in the Barça midfield this year has been Fermín López. The young starlet has been such a key component of the team that it is easy to forget that this was actually his first ever year in the senior squad. Indeed, the 11 goals he scored in 1,900 minutes of football equate to the third best tally of the last decade for a Barça midfielder in his debut campaign.

He made his first appearance on 27 August 2023 against Villarreal, and although he didn't come on until the 86th minute, it took an amazing save from Filip Jörgensen to prevent him from scoring his first competitive goal after he had already scored the winner against Real Madrid in a preseason friendly.

He started the year with the provisional number 32 on his back, but would end it with the officially registered squad number of 16. One of the most talked about attacking midfielders in the European game, it wouldn't be long before he was making his mark.

Goals galore

He eventually played 42 games, starting 19 of them, and came within just two goals of the 13 that Arda Turan (2016/17) and Cesc Fàbregas (2016/17) netted in their own maiden seasons.

We could compare this with Coutinho, who scored 11 goals in his first season, and Paulinho who scored nine, despite both typically playing in more advanced positions than Lopez has tended to do.