A look at FC Barcelona's failed attempts to replace Messi

Lionel Messi arrived at the FC Barcelona youth academy in 2000, aged 13, and, after five seasons at La Masía, he would go on to enjoy a career in the Barça first team that spanned 17 seasons. A career that would see him become not only the best player Barcelona ever produced, but also one of the greatest to ever grace a football pitch.

A total of 778 games as a Barcelona player, 672 goals, 269 assists and performances on the field that have gone down in the history of this sport. His transfer to PSG in 2021 was a 'shock' for Barça and would be a  turning point for the team.

In a club where the commitment to youth players has always been firmly valued, the emergence of the Argentine striker was a keystone for the club.  And, that is why Barcelona has spent a long time trying to look for their 'new Messi', even when he was still a key part of their playing group.

Numerous young footballers have emerged from the lower grades of FC Barcelona who have had that burden of being 'the new Messi' their backs, but who have struggled to even get a regular spot at the Catalan club. Let's take a look back at some of the failed Messi replacements.

The last great example of them is probably the Spaniard Ansu Fati, who rose from the youth academy to the first team in the 2019-2020 season, at the age of 17. Things started well, with Fati picking up 7 goals and 1 assist at the end of the year.

However, after an injury that kept him off the playing field for 11 months, another subsequent injury with two more months in the lurch and, after five seasons in the Barça strip, he struggled to cement a place in the first team and would be loaned to Brighton and Hove in September 2023

The striker from Lleida stood out in the seven seasons he spent in the lower grades of FC Barcelona, picking up a bunch of goalscoring records and always looking a class above his opponents. He came into the first team with a lot of wraps on his ability in the 2007-2008 campaign, at just 17 years old.

His first season with the Barça first team was his best, finishing with 12 goals in all competitions, but he offered diminishing returns in the next three until in July 2011 he was transferred to Roma. His Barça dream ended and a journey began that took him through Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, Stoke City, Mainz and Alavés, Montreal Impact and Vissel Kobe.

On the back of a meteoric rise at Dinamo Zagreb, Halilović would join the FC Barcelona reserve team in 2014. However, the Croatian midfielder barely played one Cup match with the first team that season before emigrating, never to return.

During his world tour he went through up to ten clubs in up to six different leagues without, of course, becoming the 'new Messi'. In that time he played for Sporting Gijón (where he was on loan) and, transferred to Hamburg, Las Palmas, Milan, Standard Lieja, Heerenveen, Birmingham, Reading, Rijeka and Fortuna Sittard.

Another midfielder who was talked about wonders and compared to Messi. Like Halilović, he only played one Cup match with the FC Barcelona first team at the age of 18 after leaving their youth ranks. His career, however, also never lived up to expectations...

After going from FC Barcelona to Manchester City, he would go through increasingly less important teams as his star faded. After them, he would wear the colors of Brighton, Racing de Santander, Hércules, Mallorca, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Sabadell, Kairat Almaty, Politehnica Iași and AC Crema 1908 of the Italian Serie D.

The Mexican playmaker was in the youth ranks of FC Barcelona from the age of 12 and it was in 2006, at the age of 17, when he made his debut with the Barcelona first team. Hr also did it in a big way – with a goal in the 19th minute of the match against Aarhus GF of Denmark. A new star of the Barça youth team had been born!

But that was nothing more than a mirage. One season and four goals later, he was transferred to English club Tottenham and never returned. In his subsequent career, he has played for Ipswich Town, Galatasaray, Racing de Santander, Mallorca, Villarreal, Los Angeles Galaxy and, back home, for Club América.

Born in El Escorial (Madrid), he joined the youth ranks of FC Barcelona to grow as a footballer and, quickly, he showed himself to the world of football as a gifted player with great projection and a promising future. At the age of 19 he made his debut in La Liga with the first team, scoring one of the three goals against Elche in that match.

But three seasons after that debut, the Spanish-Moroccan footballer would be loaned to Valencia and, later, to Alavés, from where his time at FC Barcelona would end, transferring to Sevilla in 2018-2019. Getafe and UD Las Palmas have been his teams after passing through the Andalusian capital.

At only 12 years old, South Korean midfielder Lee Seung Woo began to be compared to Messi, which is why FC Barcelona recruited him for their youth team in 2010. However, he was not able to play official matches until he was 18 years old, due to a sanction that the club received from FIFA for hiring youth players irregularly.

After completing that sanction, in the 2015-2016 season, he was considered to play for the FC Barcelona reserve team, but his last game as a Barça player was with the youth team. Lee Seung Woo ended up leaving for Suwon FC in his country, a team he returned to after passing through Hellas Verona, Portimonense and Sint-Truiden, and where he temporarily hung up his boots to do military service in South Korea in 2022.

Trained in the FC Barcelona youth academy from the age of 9, Gerard Deulofeu seemed like a complete forward, becoming the “player of the year” in the Second Division with the Barça reserve team in the 2012-2013 season, the same in the one who debuted with the first team scoring a hack-trick.

The following season, without ever becoming a first-team player, he began a few years of loan spells that took him to Everton and Sevilla, until 2015 when he was finally signed by the Toffees. From there he went on loan to Milan, returned to Barcelona, where he barely played, and left permanently for Watford and, later, Italian Udinese.

They called the Cameroonian striker the 'African Messi' and FC Barcelona incorporated him into their youth team in 2008, at the age of 13. However, he did not measure up in the different teams in the lower grades in which he played, including Barcelona B.

In the 2015-2016 season he went on loan to Real Zaragoza, a team in which he was left with the freedom card in his hand the following season. In his career, he also wore the shirts of Nàstic de Tarragona, Lugo, Lleida Sportiu, FC Honka Espoo, Zamora, Anagennisi Karditsa and FC Osaka.

The Venezuelan midfielder who is a Spanish citizen, after coming through the youth ranks of CD Tenerife, signed with the Barça youth team. He debuted with the first team in a Cup match against Badalona and in the League at the end of the 2008-2009 season, playing in the first team for three seasons.

But Jeffren did not meet the expectations of a future great soccer star and FC Barcelona transferred him to Sporting Lisbon in the 2011-2012 season. From there he would also go through Real Valladolid, KAS Eupen, Grasshopper, AEK Larnaca, Slaven Koprivnica and the Thai team Lamphun Warrior FC.

After forgetting about Ansu Fati – and all the others in this list – in 2023 a new Messi has emerged from the depths of the FC Barcelona quarry. This is Lamine Yamal, a 16-year-old striker who has already shown great promise with the first team, but... will he succeed or become another false Messi?