Barcelona are on a perennial hunt for young talent across Spain and the world in a bid to lure them to La Masia and further their development at the club.
After all, it requires early scouting and long-term planning to ensure that the prodigies of the academy develop to be compatible with the first team.
On that front, SPORT now bring to light that Barcelona have identified and are on the chase to sign a 2015-born player from Rayo Majadahonda.
One for the long haul
Indeed, Barcelona are now reportedly very close to signing Youssef Khanfri, whom the club’s scouts have closely followed in recent times.
Having seen his talent several times directly, the club are convinced that Khanfri has a special talent and that he can be incorporated into Barcelona’s under-12 team for the 2026-27 season.
Everything is on track to complete his signing in the coming weeks, and he is set to arrive at La Masia and join the junior team in the summer.
Khanfri is a dynamic and versatile player who flourishes primarily in two positions on the field – interior midfield and as a winger.
As it stands, however, it remains unknown as to where the Barcelona tacticians will place him. Given the academy’s relative overload in midfield talents, they may well see him as a player fit to develop as a winger.
Barcelona usually do not sign players from outside Catalonia in their academy until the player is in the under-13 category.
Khanfri, however, has formed an exception to that rule and will join still as an under-12 player as the club sees him to be too big a talent to leave on the market for one more year.
So far this season, the youngster has scored seven goals with Rayo Majadahonda’s under-12 side and it is clear that the Blaugrana value that aspect of his game.
