La Liga heavyweights Barcelona are reportedly on the cusp of completing a move to sign 13-year-old prospect Baba Kourouma.
According to a report by Spanish publication SPORT, Baba Kourouma is the subject of interest from Barcelona, with the Blaugrana closing in on securing his services. The 13-year-old prospect is the younger brother of former La Masia graduate and Barcelona midfielder Ilaix Moriba.
Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy has been renowned for producing some of the most well-known players the game has seen over the years. Some of them have been generational talents like Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, and Lionel Messi. Others have achieved greatness, while some have fizzled out after a bright start.
But Barcelona’s penchant for buying readymade players for the first-team squad had forced some of the most promising young graduates to desert the Catalan club and join other teams instead. That has changed in the last few years, with Ilaix Moriba, Oscar Mingueza and Gavi earning promotions to the senior setup and enjoying varying degrees of success.
Moriba famously became a first-team regular for Barcelona before departing from Camp Nou after failing to convince the Blaugrana to hand him a new contract. But that has not been the case with Gavi, who will soon sign a new long-term contract, ready to become a solution in midfield for years to come.
Barça are very close to signing Baba Kourouma, brother of Ilaix Moriba. Kourouma was born in 2009 and would join La Masia.
— @sport pic.twitter.com/MxRRQhoV4T
— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) July 21, 2022
The recent success of some of the players mentioned earlier has resurrected the image of La Masia, and the Catalan giants have been signing prodigious prospects left, right and centre. Unai Hernandez will likely be the latest wonderkid to bolster Barcelona’s youth setup, as they continue to scour the markets for the most promising youngsters. Another such whizkid is Baba Kourouma.
The 13-year-old prospect is the younger brother of Ilaix Moriba, who spent years at La Masia and even played for the Barcelona senior side before leaving last year. Interestingly, Baba Kourouma has been training with Barcelona for a year but has yet to turn out for a team.
According to the report, the 13-year-old will join the Infantil A side in the coming season before hoping to make quick progress through the ranks at the Catalan club. It will be interesting to see if Baba Kourouma follows in his brother’s footsteps to make his Barcelona debut in a few years.
