Flick discovers the latest gem of Lamine Yamal's generation

BarcelonaHansi Flick's second season at Barça kicks off this Sunday. It will once again be with young players leading the way: Lamine Yamal has barely reached the age of majority, Pau Cubarsí will also be joining, and in a few weeks, and without any rush, Marc Bernal is expected. The small group will be joined by a friend, Jofre Torrents, a roommate at La Masia, where he still lives. They have played together all their lives at Barça, and the club knows he's a candidate to shine in the coming weeks.

Torrents, born in the Selva del Camp in 2007, had his career changed by a cruciate ligament injury. Where many footballers see the risk of collapse, he saw an opportunity. He leaned on his mentor, grew more than a foot taller to reach his current height of 185 centimeters—quite a lot for a full-back; the same height as Gerard Martín—and took the opportunity to change some of his habits. "He joined Barça during the 7-a-side season. He's always been a good player, but his breakthrough came when he reached the youth team. He has a huge level of confidence," explains a person from La Masia who has watched him grow.

Jofre returned from injury in September of last year. In the first matches of the UEFA Youth League, several La Liga visitors added his name to their lists. As the matches went by, top-tier European clubs came knocking. In January, the week he was due to make his debut with Barça Atlètic, he suffered a muscle injury that sidelined him for over two months. And upon his return, as he progressively gained playing time with Juliano Belletti's team, he became a key player for the reserve team. He was one of Sergi Milà's investment prospects and remained unfazed by the pressure of playing for survival.

Barça avoided another Guiu case

"He surprised us all. In the locker room, we joked that he was our Maradona," Aleix Garrido, captain of the reserve team last season, recently explained in Jávea. His play is dazzling: he's a physically dominant full-back with outstanding technical ability. That's why Barça decided in May to upgrade and extend his contract until 2028. What they had at the time was a risk. Scouted by major European clubs, his buyout clause was six million euros. The same amount that, a few months earlier, had led Chelsea to sign Marc Guiu for the same amount. Following this departure, the Blaugrana offices decided to eliminate old contracts and increase the clause based on performance: debut with the reserve team, with the first team, games played...

Barça Atlètic came close to relegation, but ended up being relegated to the Second Division RFEF. Despite not reaching his target, Jofre's performance was outstanding during the second half of the season. So was Maresme's Jan Virgili, who was promoted from the U19s. Neither of them had a vacation at the end of the season, as they competed in the U19 European Championship with other Barça players: Quim Junyent, Tomás Marqués, Andrés Cuenca, and Alexis Olmedo.

First Flick, then the university entrance exams.

The tournament, incidentally, prevented Jofre from taking the university entrance exam. His plan is to take the exam in September, coinciding with the first international break, and he'd like to study business administration and management. Furthermore, this summer he had just over a week off, as he's been training on his own to get ready for his first session with Flick, who called him up to coach last season.

With the German's call, the club is following the roadmap it presented to Torrents. He'll be in the first-team dynamic for the next few weeks, and his performance will dictate where he competes once the season begins. He has Alejandro Balde ahead of him, and Gerard Martín, who has had a good season and has already received calls from other teams. The position is well covered, but a change can't be ruled out. Deco holds Jofre in high regard and, in the future, expects him running the touchline at the new Camp Nou. In the meantime, the full-back will continue to live at La Masia. Now more peacefully, on the rooftop and in a single room. He'll be reunited with a group of friends who are once again bringing excitement to Barcelona fans this year.