Hansi Flick has a special affection for 16-year-old Barcelona gem – Report | OneFootball

Although FC Barcelona were always the favorites in their last Copa del Rey match against UD Barbastro, their 4-0 win over the Segunda Federacion side was still important for them for various reasons.

For instance, this result helped Hansi Flick’s side turn around their trend of poor results from the last few games. Similarly, the game also witnessed the return of Ronald Araujo to the pitch as he made his season debut after recovering from a serious injury that he suffered in the summer.

Another factor that made this game special was the debut of Toni Fernández, as the youngster made his first appearance with the first team. He became the 6th player to debut under Hansi Flick, and did so aged only 16 years and 5 months.

Mundo Deportivo has reported how the youngster made his debut in this Copa del Rey game. The report claims that the German tactician has a special fondness for the forward, and he brought him to first-team training ahead of the match against Barbastro after having visited a Barcelona Athletic training session.

Before that, he had already taken him for the preseason tour of the USA, and has been called up six times in total by Hansi Flick to train with the first team. This number could easily have been even higher but an unfortunate ankle injury kept him from participating in more first-team training sessions.

Even during the warm-up for this game against Barbastro, the youngster was very attentive to the instructions Flick gave to his teammates until his own time came to get on the pitch.

The youngster did not get nervous even at that point and he only enjoyed his time on the pitch as he already knows about the confidence that the Barcelona coach has in him. He was able to further convince the German tactician with his performance and is now likely to travel to Saudi Arabia with the rest of the team for the Spanish Super Cup.

Hopefully, he will take full advantage of any opportunities that Flick sends his way, and continue to build up his place in the first team.