‘If he were 25’… Marc Casado admits surprise at €120m Barcelona star’s quality | OneFootball

Marc Casado has emerged as one of the surprise packages at FC Barcelona so far this season. He has made the step up to the senior team look as seamless as possible and looks like he was born to play in a Hansi Flick midfield.

The 21-year-old Spaniard looks calm and composed on the ball, and almost always makes the right pass. He possesses incredible vision that would make Sergio Busquets proud and it begs the question as to why Casado was not given a chance in the first-team before this campaign.

Such good performances have earned him a national call-up to the U-21 team and he is set to represent Spain after five years. It will be a special moment for Casado and he will want to build on this and make it to Luis de la Fuente’s team next time.

Speaking in an interview, as highlighted by SPORT, Casado has taken time out to talk about his teammate and superstar in the making, Lamine Yamal. Here is what the midfielder had to say about the 17-year-old:

“He surprises me a lot, and not just because of his age—if he were 25 years old, I’d still be amazed by what he does. We’re all blown away during training.”

Casado is not wrong. If you had a 25-year-old who did things that Lamine Yamal does, at the consistency at which he does it, you would consider him a special talent. The fact that the €120m-rated Spanish Euros winner does it at just 17 is astonishing.

Lamine has taken his game a level up this season and has added goalscoring and consistent chance creation to his arsenal. While the talent was there for everyone to see last season, this time around, the stats are reflecting the same.

The 17-year-old has looked at home in Hansi Flick’s setup and has emerged as one of the best attackers in Europe alongside Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. He is also one of the first names on the team sheet for Luis de la Fuente and Spain.

As much as you want to keep the expectations low about Lamine and let him develop at his pace, it is very difficult not to get excited. Everything points to Barcelona having a generation-defining player in their ranks and let’s wait and see how his career pans out.