Restlessness with Pedri

Barça observes with concern Pedri’s announced trip to the Tokyo Olympics. He considers it an excessive overexertion for an 18-year-old boy who has played his first year in the elite with unexpected numbers. in terms of number of games and minutes. The footballer raised in Las Palmas has participated in a total of 66 games, divided into 52 with Barça, four with the Under-21, with which he was debuting in September 2020, and ten with the Absolute, in which he has become a benchmark as soon as he arrives and has played every minute of the tournament, overtime included.

“You have to take care of young people,” said Luis Enrique at the press conference after the elimination in the semi-finals of the European Championship against Italy. Pedri has reassured the Barça fans and assured that next season he will be in the best disposition to compete from the beginning, but surely it is not a short-term problem, but rather the possibility of burning the midfielder for the future. medium term. That is what Barça looks at with concern, which by the way is obliged to improve the Canarian’s contract, which ends in 2022, although a clause establishes the possibility that the club unilaterally extend its contract until 2024.

Luis de la Fuente, the U21 coach, has clarified that they have carefully studied the convenience of Pedri’s call for the Games and have considered that there are no risks with the footballer. Barça respects the call and the player’s desire to attend a historic event, but cannot help but consider that it is “excessive” to charge a player with two tournaments in the same summer, especially at his very young age. He considers that the FEF has not had the detail that Koeman did have when Barça ran out of League options and gave the canary a rest so that he could come to the Eurocup fresh.

Pedri has impressed world football at the Euro and garnered accolades. It will be important to know how he manages his second season in the elite and, above all, how his legs respond to the year and a half he expects of madness, with the League, Champions, Cup and Super Cup with Barça and Final Four of the Nationes League, matches of qualification for the World Cup and appointment in Qatar in the autumn-winter of 2022. At the moment, Barça has not received any change of plans and the canary is on his way to join the concentration of Benidorm and from there, to Japan.