Barcelona player Jaffe (17 years) has become the youngest ever player to play for the Spanish national team. He made the European champions fade away. Marco Verratti, 28, had to use all means to stop the little boy.
National team coach Luis Enrique chose to allow the Barcelona prodigy to get a chance from the start in the Nations League semi-final against Italy. And it did not disappoint.
– Jaffe? Play as if in the schoolyard or in the backyard. Enrique said in the press conference after the match that he is the future and the present of the Spanish national team.
Spain beat Italy 2-1 and thus qualified for the Nations League final. Thursday evening, the discount will be ready. It will be either Belgium or France.
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The 17-year-old has been one of the very few bright spots at Barcelona so far this season. He played with team-mate Sergio Busquets and Koke Atletico Madrid in midfield against Italy on Wednesday.
With 17 years and 62 days, he is the youngest ever. The old record was set by Angel Zubieta in 1936. Gavi’s teammate Ansu Fati was very close last season. He made his debut at the age of 17 years and 308 days.
– See how our little boys enjoy in Spain! Luis Enrique tells RAI that it’s not normal to see a player with such self-confidence and character in his first appearance.
– Verratti is his role model. I told Gavi that today he has to push Verratti from the first moment to the last moment, Enrique continued. Marco Verratti is the Paris Saint-Germain player who became one of the Italian champions in the European Championship last summer.
– Gavi made top players like Jorginho and Marco Verratti look mean, writes football-espana.net.
– I was touched by Jaffe. I didn’t know him. Italian Emerson Palmieri said after the match that he had a great game, and you can see that he has huge potential.
His fellow midfield player, Cook, also liked it:
– age is just a number. It doesn’t matter how old you are when performing. The important thing is performance, he said in an interview afterwards, it doesn’t matter if you’re 17 or 37.
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It was also praised in the player exchange. “Courageous” is one of the positive words in asEvaluation. Sportsavisen gave Gavi 8 – and only two players got more.
Marker For his part, he wrote that Gaff was not nervous at all, contributed defensively and showed his qualities in the final third.
Gavi has been at Barcelona since he was 11 – drawn from Real Betis’ youth system.
The journey through the Catalan club’s academy went quickly with a professional contract in September 2020 and the debut of the first team shortly after his 17th birthday. He already has seven games for Barcelona in competitive matches, but he is still waiting for his first goal.
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