While FC Barcelona pride themselves on producing stars through La Masia, their scouts are also alert to promising players abroad to further strengthen their youth and senior ranks.<\/p>\n
Just like they are set to send scouts to watch young talents at the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup, Barcelona also had eyes on the UEFA U-19 European Championships earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands went on to win the competition, beating Spain 1-0 in the finals, with a certain Kees Smit emerging as the standout player of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Smit responds to Barcelona, Real Madrid links<\/p>\n
Smit\u2019s performances at the Euros and his breakthrough at Dutch club AZ Alkmaar led to him being linked with some of the biggest clubs across Europe.<\/p>\n
Real Madrid, for one, have shown concrete interest in the 19-year-old midfielder, while there has been reported interest from Barcelona as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n The rumours managed to catch the eye of the young midfield prodigy, who discussed the same, along with his performances at the U-19 Euros, saying:<\/p>\n \u201cI played reasonably well, I think. I did well, I scored a lot of goals. That definitely helped attract attention. I did see my name popping up a lot on social media back then,\u201d <\/strong>Smit said, as quoted by Mundo Deportivo<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI was supposed to be in the sights of\u00a0Real Madrid\u00a0and\u00a0Barcelona. That made me proud,\u201d<\/strong> he added.<\/p>\n Smit finished as both top scorer and best player at the U-19 Euros, netting four goals \u2013 against Germany, Norway, England and Romania \u2013 and providing an assist vs the latter.<\/p>\n While he may have stayed put at AZ this summer, a big move could be on the horizon for the teenage midfield prodigy in the near future.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t