Football Wonderkid Scout

Few people have caused as much of a stir or hype as 17 year-old winger Gerard Deulofeu at Barcelona in recent years. Recently starring at the Under-19 European Championships for Spain in Romania, Deulofeu inspired his country to victory. Deulofeu began the finals tormenting Belgium down both flanks with plenty of pace and trickery and continued in the same vein throughout the tournament, producing a stunning goal against the Republic of Ireland to open the scoring in the semi-final.

Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta has stressed that the club will be very careful with exciting young winger Gerard Deulofeu who has now been added to Barcelona's first team for the remainder of pre-season. With natural comparisons to Lionel Messi, another La Masia academy product, Deulofeu has excellent technical ability and has already been linked to Chelsea after finding his opportunities in the Barcelona B side limited. While he can operate on both sides, Deulofeu usually operates on the left and is a specialist in one-one situations due to his superb call control.

With the Catalan club wary of losing another one of its jewel’s in the crown, Guardiola is keen to involve the prodigious talent as part of his first team plans. However, the arrival of Alexis Sánchez and imminent return of