"Could be the next Haaland": the young Barça prodigy who is emerging at the World Cup

Torelló"Holy cow, Hamza, the Egyptian from Barça, at the World Cup," he wrote in the WhatsApp group of Huesca's youth team A when he found out the news. "Bullshit," replied a teammate. "He's a physical marvel," assures Jordan Lawson Farrona (Mérida, 2007) now. Hamza Abdelkarim (2008) arrived at Barça's youth team in the winter transfer market on loan and the club has already exercised the purchase option of one and a half million. On March 8, he debuted with a goal against Huesca and last Monday he debuted at the World Cup at just 18 years old. He is one of the five youngest players in the competition and one of the main prospects. In nine months he has gone from the U-17 World Cup to the absolute World Cup and Barça and Hansi Flick are already rubbing their hands together for the present and future of the newarrival from the city of Cairo.

Lawson Farrona, a centre-back, was tasked with marking him on that first day as a Barcelona player. He arrived "with the marketing of being a future superstar" and already met expectations. "He is a player who greatly benefits Barça's positional play. He is a reference point, a penalty-box striker who knows where he needs to be. He's in the Lewandowski mould in terms of height, physique, play, and goals. Players who will finish 100% or 90% of the balls they receive in the box. He's not the typical small, technical Barça player who can dribble past three or four opponents, the typical creative, quality, and passing player. He's different: a physical and aerial player, the kind of player La Masia doesn't usually produce," he emphasizes.

Farrona is 191 centimetres tall, half a hand taller than Abdelkarim, but he witnessed the blaugrana striker's aerial power firsthand. "I also saw that he is a humble person. Sometimes you face people who you can see believe they are much superior to you and have more ego and arrogance. And he was the complete opposite. After the match, I saw him talking to an Arab boy from our academy," says the young defender.

Abdelkarim scored five goals in seven games in the Honor Division youth league, with a hat trick against Montecarlo on the last matchday (9-0). Antonio Pérez (Zaragoza, 2007), a center-back and captain of the Aragonese club, admits that in the days leading up to the game, they talked a lot about Abdelkarim. "You hear he has a clause of I don't know how many million and you think: 'Damn!' We are a humble team: no one gets paid here," he explains. Pérez, in fact, is studying for a degree and working at a summer camp.

"During the week, they showed us many videos of him and warned us that he had spectacular aerial play. Against Barça, you can't mark a specific player because they are all very good and anyone can win the game on their own, but we knew he was very decisive and that if he had an opportunity, he would score for sure. He scored three goals," Pérez admits with a smile. He scored three headers. "They aren't the prettiest goals, but they are goals."

"On the field, he reminded me of Lewandowski: a player who finishes everything and has a great nose for goal," he adds. His match was on May 3rd, and on June 15th, Abdelkarim debuted in the World Cup. "A month and a half ago he played against us, and on Monday we saw him in the World Cup: in a month and a half, he's gone from playing against Ramon and me to playing against the best center-backs in the world. He's a player who is playing in the World Cup. He's a World Cup player. It's incredible," he states. He's bet his friends that next season Abdelkarim will debut with Flick's team, "because this season was already too late."

In his country, they see similarities with Haaland

The Egyptian forward ruined his farewell day at Montecarlo, his club since he was three years old, but he speaks of it happily: "We can always say we played against him if he goes far. In fact, we can already say it because he has already played in a World Cup. It's a World Cup, you know." "More than half of that team will be professionals, if not all. But here the doubt is no longer whether he will be professional or not. In his case, the doubt is whether he will be among the greatest, whether he will be able to be at some Ballon d'Or gala," concludes Pérez. He says he will be professional "yes or yes."

If at Can Barça Abdelkarim is an increasingly exciting and thrilling promise, in Egypt he is already a media phenomenon. "He is the first Egyptian player to sign for one of the two giants of the League. It had always been a dream for all Egyptians to have a player at Barça or Madrid. It is also very important to have such a promise because we are already living through Salah's final years," explains Amr Fahmy (Cairo, 1986), a journalist for the Arabic beIN Sports channel who follows Al-Ahly and the national team. In Monday's match against Belgium (1-1), he came on the field precisely in place of Mohamed Salah.

"He has everything to succeed. He could be the next Haaland, but he also has to manage the pressure because there are already many expectations around him and he is in a very dangerous phase," he highlights. He has not forgotten the first day he saw him, still with the under-17 team: "I was very impressed by his physique compared to the rest and his aerial ability. He is exceptional." "He has two aunts who are former international volleyball players and his father was also a volleyball player at Al-Ahly. Perhaps that's why he jumps so much."