Diego Kochen reliving his youth

Goalkeeper Diego Kochen is heading back to Florida as part of the FC Barcelona touring party. The promising stopper from La Masia was born in the US state, in Miami on 19 March 2006. 

One of his breakthrough games happened when he was just 12 years old, just 33km away from Orlando, in a game precisely against Manchester City, the very same side that Barça will be starting their tour against on Wednesday 31 July at the Camping World Stadium. 

Golden glove in Florida... 

The event happened seven years ago in Kissimmee at the 2017 Prospects Cup when he was playing for Weston FC, helping his team to the final and winning the Golden Glove for the best goalkeeper in the tournament. 

...against Manchester City

In that game he made some simply stunning saves against the English side, albeit not enough to prevent the hot favourites from going on to lift the trophy. One of the stars for the sky blues that day was Justin Oboavwoduo, who is now 17 and part of the senior squad that will be providing the first opposition this preseason for Hansi Flick and his troops. 

But it was at that tournament that the football world truly started to realise just what a prodigal talent Diego Kochen was. Two years later, he'd be heading across the Atlantic to form part of the FC Barcelona youth setup.