{"id":61398,"date":"2026-07-27T09:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/61398\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T09:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:44:15","slug":"barcelona-16-year-old-academy-talent-surprises-first-team-stars-in-pre-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/61398\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona 16-year-old academy talent surprises first-team stars in pre-season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ebrima Tunkara is rapidly establishing himself as one of FC Barcelona\u2019s most exciting academy prospects<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Indeed, according to SPORT<\/a>, at just 16 years of age, he is already attracting significant attention during the club\u2019s pre-season preparations and could remain involved with the first team beyond the summer.<\/p>\n

Hansi Flick had no hesitation in including the Spain youth international of Gambian heritage in the large group of academy players invited to train with the senior squad. <\/p>\n

Born in 2010, Tunkara is the youngest player involved in first-team pre-season, yet his physical presence, technical quality and athleticism have already made a lasting impression.<\/p>\n

While his teammates at Bar\u00e7a Atletic and the Juvenil A side were already familiar with his talent, several senior players who had not previously trained alongside him have been surprised by his level. <\/p>\n

\"EbrimaEbrima Tunkara making an impression. (Picture credit: Instagram\/@ebrimatunkara10)<\/p>\n

Despite the growing attention, Tunkara remains grounded and understands that his immediate future is expected to be with Bar\u00e7a Atletic, although his rapid progress suggests anything is possible.<\/p>\n

Goal vs Europa highlights potential<\/p>\n

Tunkara wasted little time making his mark during Barcelona\u2019s opening pre-season fixture against CE Europa.<\/p>\n

Although the club viewed Friday\u2019s 4-1 victory as little more than a training exercise, the match represented an important opportunity for the academy players hoping to impress Flick.<\/p>\n

The youngster seized that chance by scoring Barcelona\u2019s third goal. After receiving a pass from Alex Gonzalez, Tunkara drove into the box and produced an excellent finish despite close defensive pressure. <\/p>\n

He had only been on the pitch for three minutes, having come on as part of an entirely new team introduced at half-time.<\/p>\n

The goal was further evidence of the impact he had already been making throughout the opening weeks of pre-season training.<\/p>\n

\"EbrimaA bright future awaits. (Picture credit: Instagram\/@ebrimatunkara10)<\/p>\n

Barcelona now head to England for their pre-season training camp, and Flick intends to keep together the group of academy players who have worked with him since preparations began.<\/p>\n

A talent Barcelona will continue to monitor<\/p>\n

Regardless of what happens after pre-season, Tunkara has firmly placed himself on Flick\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n

There is still plenty for the teenager to learn, but those within the club believe he possesses exceptional potential. <\/p>\n

Widely regarded as one of the next major talents to emerge from La Masia, Tunkara has already shown that he is capable of competing in a demanding first-team environment.<\/p>\n

His development will continue to be closely monitored as Barcelona look to nurture another promising graduate from their renowned academy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ebrima Tunkara is rapidly establishing himself as one of FC Barcelona\u2019s most exciting academy prospects. Indeed, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,222,14863,223],"class_list":["post-61398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-ebrima-tunkara","tag-fc-barcelona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61398","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=61398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}