BARCELONA, 4 Apr. (SportsFinding) –
The FC Barcelona footballer Pablo Páez Gavira, ‘Gavi’, has collected the ‘Next Generation’ award that accredits him as the third best young player in the world behind the German Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) and the English Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund ), according to the portal Goal.com, which has compiled a list of the best 50 talents born after January 1, 2003.
Gavi, born in 2004 and who keeps a record with the Barça youth team, has become a fundamental piece in Xavi’s scheme and the youngest player in history to debut with the Spanish team. Also, other players from La Masía, such as Ilias (18th) or Balde (35th), appear in the ranking.
In the case of other LaLiga Santander teams, exculé Ilaix Moribas, currently at Valencia CF, appears as the seventeenth best talent. Real Madrid academy player Bruno Iglesias (50th) appears in the last position on the list.
Thus, the winner of the seventh edition of the award is the Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham, who follows in the footsteps of Ansu Fati, Rodrygo, Jadon Sancho, Justin Kluivert, Gianluigi Donnaruma and Youri Telemans; all of them winners of the ‘Next Generation’ award.
At 18, Bellingham is an international regular for Gareth Southgate’s side and, in 2021, he was the youngest player to appear in a European Championship finals match.