The advantage Pau Cubarsi has on Mika Faye
Jules Kounde suffered a sprain in the internal lateral ligament of his left knee in Granada and will be out for about a month, which could open the door for one of Barça Atlètic's starting central defenders to be called up by Xavi Hernández in the next matches.
Pau Cubasí and Mika Faye are the candidates. Players with different characteristics, but who complement each other. Rafa Márquez, their coach at Barça Atlètic, compares them in this way, and breaks down the qualities of each one: "They are two players who understand each other quite well both defensively and offensively. Both have good ball control, maybe Mika is more forceful, especially because of the physical aspect. Cuba is more methodical, more intelligent in personal duels. Both are performing. Cuba surprises me even though I already knew about his quality because he is still very young for the category and even so he behaves like an experienced player".
Apart from what each can contribute, age (Cubarsí is only 16 and Mika Faye, 19) and other factors (Cubarsí is logically more imbued with Barça's style of play), there is one factor that could be decisive for Xavi when it comes to making a decision.
Among the matches that Koundé will miss is the Champions League double-header against Shakhtar Donetsk. Surely the next Wednesday in Montjuïc and also could not be the French defender on November 7 in Hamburg, where the Ukrainians exercise this season as home in Europe, because it will not yet be completed a month of injury.
The advantage that Cubarsi has over Faye is that the Girona-born player is registered in the Champions League B list, while this is not the case of the Senegalese, so Faye cannot play in European competition.
Cubarsi has already been chosen by Xavi Hernandez, who has taken him to some training, to be one of the youth players registered in the Champions League since September 5. The list is of 27 footballers and 8 have Barça Atlètic record or, as is the case of Cubarsí, of the Juvenil A. The player from Estanyol has the number 16 and is the youngest of the group. The other youth player, goalkeeper Diego Kochen, is 17 years old.
The other youth players are Lamine Yamal, Fermín López, Marc Casadó, Aleix Garrido, Ander Astralaga and Ángel Alarcón, who is recovering from an injury.
The B list can be modified up to 24 hours before the matches, but Mika Faye does not meet the requirements because he was signed this season. To play in the Champions League, he should have been included in the A list.
