Of the 11 players aged 18 or under to have played in LaLiga so far this season, six of them play for Barcelona. The only two 17-year-olds to have featured in Spain's top flight this term both play for the Catalan club: Pedro "Dro" Fernández and Toni Fernández.
It has been a common theme in recent years as Barça have combatted financial problems by rolling out what looks set to be another generation of golden talent. From Gavi, Fermín López and Alejandro Balde, to Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí, La Masia, the club's famed academy, has delivered just when it was most needed.
It represents a marked change from the previous decade, when a spine of homegrown talent led by the likes of Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, made it difficult for youngsters to establish themselves as regular starters.
The latest players to impress coach Hansi Flick and step from the youth setup into the first team are Dro, Toni and Jofre Torrents, with a special mention for Marc Bernal, whose rise was cruelly halted last year when he tore his ACL in the third LaLiga game of the season. Those four, along with Yamal and Cubarsí -- who are already relative veterans at the age of 18 with 209 first team appearances between them -- are among the youngest players to get minutes in LaLiga during the campaign.
It has reached the stage where it almost goes unnoticed, given the success Gavi, Pedri (who joined from Las Palmas) and Yamal all achieved by age 17, but one youth coach at the club points out to ESPN that it should "not be normalized" what the kids coming after them are doing. "It shouldn't need saying," the coach added, "but playing for Barça at 17 is remarkable."
We took a look at the latest crop of youngsters who have impressed Flick, speaking to those who have watched them develop, and then tried to predict who else could be on the fringes of a breakthrough in the coming months.
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Pedro 'Dro' Fernández | AM/FW | 17 | debut Sept. 28, 2025
You could, perhaps slightly tenuously, link Dro's rise to the first team to Thiago Alcantara in two ways. When Thiago left his role as one of Flick's assistants in 2024 -- he has since returned to the German's staff -- Arnau Blanco was promoted to the first team after years in the academy. Blanco had worked directly with Dro previously. His excitement about the player rubbed off on Flick and, while sources told ESPN that it was always likely to be a case of sooner rather than later, it accelerated Dro's progression into the senior setup.
The second link is that Barça signed Dro from the small Galician side Val Miñor, where Thiago and his brother Rafinha, who also went on to play for Barça, had spent time during their development. Dro was actually one of two players Barça signed from the same Val Miñor team at the age of 14 in 2022. The other was Pedro Villar. They arrived as "The Two Pedros." Dro was initially known as Dro because his brother could not say his name, but given the number of Pedros he played with down the years, it stuck. Real Madrid had also been alerted to both Pedros by scouts in the north of Spain, but sources say they "slept" on getting a deal done, allowing Barça to pounce.
There are some players who lend themselves easily to comparisons. Dro, for different reasons, is certainly one of them.
"Dro is a talent on the same level as Thiago," Val Miñor coach Javier Roxo, who worked with both players, said. "I have not seen anyone as technical as Thiago, but in terms of vision of play, Dro is possibly ahead of him."
Another ex-coach at Val Miñor, Luis Pérez Barreiro, said: "Even though there are people who compare him with Pedri, I see more things from Andrés Iniesta."
Pedri recently dubbed Dro his favorite player coming through at Barça, while another coach who has worked with him compared him to Brazil legend Kaka, who starred for Real Madrid and AC Milan during his career.
"Dro's understanding of the game is way above the average," the coach told ESPN. "He just needs to be in contact with the ball constantly and involved in the game, as that keeps him cognitively active and brings out the best in him.
"He always stood out as a different kind of player. I always saw him as being similar to Kaka, even if he played for Real Madrid and Milan [and not Barça]."
Dro, whose Galician dad played amateur football and whose mum is from the Philippines, announced himself with a stunning strike in preseason and later made his competitive debut against Real Sociedad in LaLiga. A first UEFA Champions League start followed against Olympiacos, when he created a goal for Fermin López to become the second-youngest player to provide an assist in Europe's premier competition, after United States international Giovanni Reyna.
Against the Greek side, Dro played on the left of the front three, but most see him eventually settling as one of the advanced central midfielders. A source says Flick is "smitten" with him, but that there have not been as many occasions as he may have liked to give him minutes this season as Barça's form has faltered at times.
Marc Bernal | DM | 18 | debut Aug. 17, 2024
Bernal is the outlier of the current batch in the sense that he would now be much closer to Yamal and Cubarsí in terms of first-team exposure than Dro, Toni and Torrents if he hadn't suffered a serious injury in August 2024. A midfielder out of sync with the small, technical players you associate with La Masia -- he is 6-foot-3 and very imposing, although he's also useful with the ball -- he starred in the first three games of the Flick era. With an injury crisis in midfield, alongside fellow youth-team graduate Marc Casadó, he looked completely at home as Barça began the campaign with wins against Valencia, Athletic Club and Rayo Vallecano.
For many, that was no surprise, not just because of how ingrained the Barça style is in him, given he joined the club aged six, but because he is part of the 2007 generation, which also features Yamal and Cubarsí. Stepping into a first team which featured many of his friends made the promotion easier for him, sources explained.
However, in his third appearance, away at Rayo, he tore his ACL. It was a devastating blow for Bernal and Barça. Sources said that it took a real mental toll on the teenager, who spent the first part of his recovery staying in a hotel close to the training ground. Regular work with a psychologist also helped him through a layoff which extended to over a year.
During that time, Barça showed their commitment to him by negotiating a new contract until 2029 with his agency, RocNation, which included a €500 million release clause.
Now, the goal is to help Bernal get back to his best. Flick has been cautious about managing his minutes since he returned with an assist in the 6-0 win over Valencia in September. He has played just 23 minutes across four further outings since then, curtailing expectations of how big his role could be this season, but many in the club remain optimistic that the Catalan native could be the starting defensive midfielder for the next decade once he's fit and bedded in again.
Toni Fernández | AM/FW | 17 | debuted Jan. 4, 2025
It could get confusing in Barça's first team in the coming years with so many teenagers named Fernández coming through. Toni is of no relation to Dro but he does have a cousin who is also on the cusp of the first team: Guille. In fact, for years, many tipped midfielder Guille to be the first of the pair to debut for the senior team. Indeed, he was already training with them in 2023, but a first competitive appearance has yet to arrive.
Toni, meanwhile, was handed his senior debut in the Copa del Rey last January, coming off the bench in a 4-0 win against Barbastro to become the club's second youngest debutant after Yamal (at 16 years and 173 days old.) He had already impressed Flick in the former Bayern Munich coach's first summer at the club in 2024, slotting home penalties in friendlies against Manchester City and AC Milan.
Toni is actually -- just -- the younger of the two cousins, born one month after Guille in July 2008 in the Catalan city of Rubí. They are cousins through both parental lines: their mums are sisters and their dads are brothers. You can imagine the family pride, then, when the 16-year-old duo became the two youngest-ever goal scorers for Barça's reserve team in the same match last season, when they netted just four minutes apart in a Spanish third division game against Ourense. Toni's goal came first, a stunning bicycle kick after a one-two.
The pair have played together since they were kids, in the park, in front of the house where Toni still lives, at Espanyol, and then to Barcelona aged 10 in 2018. However, there is now a slight desire to "separate" them, one source says, otherwise it's always "the cousins" and it can become tiring. They are both now working with different agents: Guille is with Jorge Mendes, while Toni is with Andrea Orlandi.
It is working slowly. Toni is currently in the spotlight on his own. Capable of playing across the front three or behind, Flick handed him his full LaLiga debut as a surprise starter in October's 2-1 win against Girona, picking him as a false No. 9, wedged between Yamal and Marcus Rashford, although his future is envisaged in a deeper role.
"He is a No. 10," his agent Orlandi tells ESPN. "This is where I think he'll end up playing. With Flick, the first team plays with a No. 10, but historically Barça have always used a 4-3-3 formation. Even now, the second team plays like this. So he's played as a No. 9, a right winger and an attacking midfielder in a three -- that could be an option for him going forward.
"But as a No. 10, he is deadly. He always creates, even in a game where you think he is out of it, he'll have a moment of brilliance. In the final 25 yards, on his day, he is unplayable."
Jofre Torrents | LB | 18 | debut Aug. 16, 2025
Despite being regularly involved with first-team training, which led to a LaLiga debut against Mallorca in August, the defender remains committed to his education. In September, he turned down the chance to join up with Spain's under-19 side in order to take his pre-university exams. And it was worth it. He passed and is now planning to take a degree in Business Management.
It was perhaps the low point of Torrents' career so far which led him to remain in education. Like Bernal, he tore his ACL in 2023, spending a year out of action, a period in which you realize how frivolous the sport can be, especially when you're a teenager who has still not done anything in the professional game.
But for that injury, some sources believe he may have been integrated into the first team sooner. He is one of a handful of left backs who have come through La Masia in recent years. Most have departed, like Marc Cucurella, Alejandro Grimaldo and Juan Miranda, but others remain, like Balde, who club sources are hopeful Torrents will be able to challenge for a starting berth in the coming year.
At 6-foot tall, Torrents has a physical profile that is less common for what you may consider a classic attacking full back, but his size, combined with his technique, gives him a very modern look, with sources pointing to an increasing trend in European football (see: Arsenal) to relocate center backs to full back roles in search of more height, power and strength.
Who could be next?
Roony Bardghji, 20, is another youngster getting minutes under Flick, but his education was not served at La Masia. The Sweden international winger joined the club for around €2 million from FC Copenhagen in the summer, but has impressed with his dribbling style and confidence.
In-house, sources detail how impressed Flick has been with versatile midfielder Xavi Espart, who is currently sidelined for two months with an injury. Prior to hurting his knee, the 18-year-old had been on the verge of first-team minutes. As a midfielder who has increasingly been used at right back, one source says Flick sees something of Bayern and Germany legend Philipp Lahm in him.
Elsewhere, defender Landry Farre, another from the 2007 generation, is valued for his versatility across the backline, 17-year-old winger Sama Nomoko is making waves with the reserve team and the Under-19s, while Ebrima Tunkara, still just 15, is being tipped by those within the club as the youngster with the highest ceiling yet to debut for the first team.
Other names may sound more familiar. Young USMNT goalkeeper Diego Kochen has been involved with the first team for well over a year, but the arrival of Joan García for €25 million from Espanyol last summer has complicated things for him young term. Defender Andres Cuenca and winger Dani Rodríguez, who has had terrible luck with injuries, have also been staples in first-team training at times.