Barca B youngster on loan to Vitesse
The Barcelona B midfielder Marti Riverola has recently signed for the Dutch team Vitesse. The 19-year-old made it to the club this year as an amateur. He has featured for the amateur team 4 times this season out of 18.
The Catalans are famous for creating top football players in the world. With the likes of current three Ballon d’Or finalists, the La Masia has proven to be one of the best academies in the world. Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez all coming
from the same youth academy simply makes it clear that the players the Barcelona produce are simply out class.
Even though the Catalans are famous for creating extraordinary players, they do send the players out on loan to give them first team experience. Alexandre Hleb went through a very different scenario and so did Zlatan Ibrahimovic; however, in Martin Caceres’s
case it simply becomes clear how the Spanish Champions want the young players to gain first team experience. Currently on loan to Sevilla, Caceres has managed to become one of their best defenders and he has already appeared 11 times this season and even scored
one goal.
Riverola asked Barcelona for a move out because he wanted to gain first team experience and the amateur team manager Barbera spoke that it was a good option for him and for the club and so they decided to take it. On the team that he is going to be joining
he said:
“They are a Dutch first division team and he said he wanted to give it a go.”
Riverola won’t need a lot of time to settle in Vitesse as they are being managed by the former Barcelona star Albert “Chapi” Ferrer who is assisted by the former youth team coach of Barcelona Albert Capellas. Both the coach and the assistant coach decided
to take Riverola after scouting him for a few months. The ex-La Blaugrana stars are currently trying to lift Vitesse in the points table; they are currently lying in the bottom half of the table.
The coach of the first team, Josep Guardiola has also backed the loan deal. The Catalan boss decided to take Martin Riverola to Asia during the pre season matches and also played him during the Catalan Cup. The former Barcelona midfielder believes that the
Barca B squad is very big and with a good offer coming in from a club that can offer him first team experience cannot be denied.
Josep Guardiola also explained that the Dutch league’s style of play is very similar to the Spanish La Liga and with Riverola getting first team experience he is going to grow into a good player. He said that getting experience from outside of Spain would
just give the boy an extra advantage and he is just trying to make it work for the youngster at the moment.
Currently, Martin Riverola is one of the only few players who have managed to reach the Barca B team at the age of 19 only. The Catalan coach wished him luck with the new club as he said:
“I hope it all works out.”