That’s how Adama was in his first stage at Barça and that’s how it is now

Adama Traoré broke into the first team of FC Barcelona in November 2013, with just 17 years. Tata Martino, at that time the coach of the Blaugrana team, made his debut for a very young and promising winger against Granada at the Camp Nou, jumping onto the pitch in Neymar’s place. Big words. And three days later – on November 26 – he would do the same in the top continental competition against Ajax. Very fast and unbalanced, with a more than surprising dribbling ability, but with a physique that then greatly limited his conditions. Although he was relatively easy to get around rivals with the ball at his feet, Adama used to lose duels that led him to collide with his opponents. In the purely physical aspect, beyond the fact that he was still a minor, the winger from L’Hospitalet de Llobregat was a footballer to be made. A fact that is thus reflected in his first images with the elastic culé.

But this physical aspect has little or nothing to do with the player he has ended up becoming at Wolverhampton. Adama Traoré’s passage through the Premier League changed the Barça youth squad, both physically and football-wise. To his capacity for overflow and devilish speed, the Spanish international added unparalleled physical power. And it is that the musculature that the 26-year-old player has developed leaves no one indifferent. Now, crashing against Adama Traoré is not a dish of good taste for any defender. In addition to being the Premier League player with the best percentage of completed dribbles (81%), his statistics of duels won, both on the ground and in the air, exceed 60% in both cases. And there is nothing more than seeing the physical development that Adama Traoré has experienced in the almost 8 years since he left Barcelona to understand the type of footballer he has become.