ownership of Paul Tower (19 years old) against Viktoria Plzen was one of the few incentives of the inconsequential match that the Barcelona played this past Tuesday, already eliminated from the Champions League. The Spaniard did not disappoint, who had only enjoyed three spells so far (10 minutes in the first leg against Viktoria, 14 against Athletic and another seven against Bayern), with the matches already fully decided. His was the goal that closed the European match against the weak Czech team to sign the final 2-4. And he did it after noticing a strain on his calves that forced him to ask for the change without being able to celebrate his first goal with the Barça team. “I have remembered the family, the friends and the people who support me in football,” he later acknowledged after reassuring the Catalans fans about his slight inconvenience.
Pablo Torre is the new pearl of Barcelona, although his career is being slowed down by the competitiveness of the squad and Xavi’s refusal that, like Nico, he could have minutes and forge himself with a loan in a top-level team. The Barça coach vetoed his departure so that he would not acquire vices that would distance him from the famous Barça DNA.
«It will be in the dynamics of the first team. When he thinks that he is not going to participate with the first team, he will play in the reserve team. He is of growing age. He is surprising us all. He understands everything, he sees it quickly, he associates well, he has talent and a goal”, Xavi explained a few months ago despite the fact that Pablo Torre was very reluctant to play with Barça Atlétic, who plays in the First RFEF, the same category who left as a midfielder after move up with Racing. The footballer, through his representative, Arturo Canales, asked to return on loan to the Cantabrian team, which plays in the Second Division, rather than play in the subsidiary. The culé coaching staff ruled it out.
Since Barcelona announced at the beginning of March of this year its transfer until 2026 (it cost 5 million plus a series of variables that could reach 20 million more), expectations have been high given the possibility of being faced a new Pedro. Curiously, the fundamental factor for the player to accept the Barça proposal, ruling out the one from Real Madrid, which also wanted him, was the intervention of Xavi, who personally contacted him and those around him to expose the solidity of his project in which a lot of prominence is supposed to be given to young footballers. The bet on Pedri, Gavi or Balde are the clear example that the Egarense is committed to meritocracy without looking at the DNI.
If Pablo Torre saw in Pjanic’s departure an opportunity to gain a foothold in the first team, now he has accepted his complexity and does not rule out playing with the reserve team. “In the end it is difficult to have minutes at Barça but I have admiration for my teammates, I look at all of them and they are elite players and I try to get good things out of everyone,” he pointed out after Tuesday’s game. In fact, Barça does not rule out incorporating him into the subsidiary during the Qatar World Cup so that he has minutes, although Rafa Márquez, the coach of Barça Atléticohas commented on more than one occasion that he was not aware of the club’s plans with the talented footballer.
