{"id":23725,"date":"2026-05-15T05:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T05:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/23725\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T05:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T05:24:08","slug":"alvaro-cortes-barcelonas-bright-prospect-who-took-the-hard-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/23725\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c1lvaro Cort\u00e9s – Barcelona\u2019s bright prospect who took the hard road"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c1lvaro Cort\u00e9s is the latest project for Hansi Flick to get excited about after the center back finally clocked first-team minutes at Mendizorroza<\/a>. It has been a long five-year climb to the senior squad for the 21-year-old. He wasn\u2019t an overnight sensation like Pau Cubars\u00ed. It took grit and consistent fight to get to this point.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the current Bar\u00e7a Atl\u00e8tic captain and has a maturity that comes from a winding road through the youth ranks. The club first spotted him in Arag\u00f3n back in 2021. Former youth directors Jordi Roura and Aureli Altimira were sold on the kid after watching him play against Sabadell, where he already looked like a veteran despite being a youngster.<\/p>\n

Altimira was particularly struck<\/a> by his composure, saying that \u201che already had the build and he also had the bearing of a fully formed player, something similar to what he has shown in his debut with the first team; he is a footballer who already seemed like a veteran.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a stint with Juvenil B, Barcelona decided a loan to CF Damm for the 2022-23 season was necessary to toughen him up. He worked there under former Argentina international Pablo Rotchen, who took it upon himself to transform the elegant ball-player into a more physical defensive presence.<\/p>\n

Rotchen admitted that leaving the Bar\u00e7a environment was tough on the youngster, but he believes the loan was the turning point. He focused on the \u201canimal\u201d side of the game – getting stuck in and owning the penalty area. This development was key for Cort\u00e9s to return to Barcelona having grown as a player.<\/p>\n

A nasty injury in October 2023 almost derailed everything just as he was making noise under Rafa M\u00e1rquez. \u00d3scar L\u00f3pez, who had him for a short time, describes him as an intense, aggressive defender who uses top-tier spatial awareness to make up for not being a pure speedster. L\u00f3pez is certain that if Bar\u00e7a keeps betting on him, \u201cBar\u00e7a will have a center back for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albert S\u00e1nchez, who stepped in for the reserve team after M\u00e1rquez left, agrees. He pointed out how Cort\u00e9s breaks lines with his passing. S\u00e1nchez thinks Cort\u00e9s has clearly outgrown the lower leagues, stating \u201cthe RFEF Second Division is a category that of course is too small for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

That passing combined with the \u201canimal\u201d side is exactly what Flick needs, but it has to be done at an elite level to succeed at the Camp Nou. Now the club needs to figure out how he fits into the team\u2019s long-term plans at center-back, where a new signing is widely expected this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00c1lvaro Cort\u00e9s is the latest project for Hansi Flick to get excited about after the center back finally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9269,92,667],"class_list":["post-23725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barca-atletic","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-la-liga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}