![\"Dro](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/talents-calendar-dro-fernandez-1765805449-185282.jpg\" "\\"Dro")
<\/p>\nTalents Calendar\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a9TM\/IMAGO\n <\/p>\n
While Lamine Yamal<\/a> is the most valuable player in the world<\/a> at 18, Barcelona<\/a> already have the next talents coming from La Masia in the pipeline. One of them is Dro Fern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, who is not only among Hansi Flick\u2019s favorites but also famous on the other end of the planet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pedro Fern\u00e1ndez Sarmiento is his full name, and he was initially supposed to play for Bar\u00e7a Atl\u00e9tic<\/a> in the fourth division. But he exceeded expectations during the preseason, and when fit was always in Flick\u2019s selection. It all kicked off during Bar\u00e7a\u2019s trip to Asia last summer, where Fern\u00e1ndez had a dream debut. Just nine minutes after being brought on, the midfielder scored in spectacular fashion from 17 meters out against Vissel Kobe (3-1).<\/p>\n The fact that he made his debut in Asia brought even more attention, as his mother is from the Philippines. Although 11,000km away from Barcelona, the progress of the young talent is being closely monitored in the Philippines. The young talent brings back memories of Paulino Alc\u00e1ntara<\/a>, who 100 years ago played for both national teams and went on to win 10 Catalan championships and 5 cups.<\/p>\n Although Fern\u00e1ndez has played only a few games for Bar\u00e7a, Flick has no problem starting the teenager in important matches. On matchday 7, the 17-year-old made his starting XI debut against Real Sociedad<\/a> (2-1<\/a>). One month later, he made his debut in the Champions League against Olympiacos Piraeus<\/a> (6-1<\/a>). And Fern\u00e1ndez had an immediate impact by providing an assist when Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez<\/a> made it 2-0.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe is a great player who will just get better,\u201d Flick said. \u201cDro is very talented. You can see it in training. I love to see it.\u201d A scout who watches the player in every training session at Bar\u00e7a\u2019s training center, Joan Gampar, said to Transfermarkt: \u201cHe has many positive attributes. Is strong one-on-one, has good dribbling, and fantastic step overs. He is a big talent. He has to work on his physical attributes and needs to learn to finish better.\u201d What also stands out are his abilities on the ball and his technique, which he perfected while playing futsal as a kid.<\/p>\n Dro Ferna\u0301ndez with a rapid rise at Barcelona<\/strong><\/p>\n Born in Galicia, not far from the border to Portugal, Fern\u00e1ndez joined Bar\u00e7a from ED Val Mi\u00f1or Nigr\u00e1n<\/a> and quickly ascended through the ranks. In three years, he worked his way from the U15s to the first team. Last season, he helped his club win the Youth League. Despite all that, he is known for being humble.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was always an uncomplicated, normal boy,\u201d his first coach, Luis P\u00e9rez, said in an interview with Sport. \u201cHe was quite shy in his first training sessions, but with time, he got used to his surroundings. I can remember seeing him play with kids two years older than him. At first you wouldn\u2019t notice him, and then he would get started, and it was spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite a good start with the first team that also earned him a market value increase of \u20ac10m, his former coach suggests more patience when it comes to Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s development. \u201cHe isn\u2019t a typical player who will right away leave a mark, but with more playing time, his confidence will grow, because he can do even more than he has already shown,\u201d P\u00e9rez added. The main question remains about his best position. Is he a no.10, a no.8, or a winger?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although Flick often uses him in the middle, Fern\u00e1ndez might be best on the wing. He appears to be a typical winger; experts suggest that he might be best used on the left, where his right foot could be a real weapon. Fern\u00e1ndez also seems to prefer that option. \u201cI feel comfortable playing on the wing because the coach gives me the freedom to be creative there,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cFlick wants me to have my ball on the foot and to press against the ball.\u201d Because of his attributes, he is often compared with central midfielder Andr\u00e9s Iniesta. But Fern\u00e1ndez himself points to another no.8 when looking for comparable players. \u201cI think what Pedri is doing on the pitch is spectacular,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cIt is spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s development is indeed being followed with some anticipation in the Philippines, even if the chances are small that he will follow in Alc\u00e1ntara’s footsteps and play for the Azkals. From the U15 to the U18, Fern\u00e1ndez has represented Spain, and if his path continues at Bar\u00e7a, then he will likely feature for the senior team soon.<\/p>\n From December 1 to 24, we introduce new players from different countries born in 2008 and 2009. Area managers, users, and data scouts come into play as experts throughout the series. You can follow all those players by adding them to your\u00a0TM watchlist<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talents Calendar\u00a0 \u00a9TM\/IMAGO While Lamine Yamal is the most valuable player in the world at 18, Barcelona already…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":468906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[213164,5727,23958,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-468905","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-dro-fernandez","9":"tag-fc-barcelona","10":"tag-laliga","11":"tag-soccer","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115774714091535687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Talents](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/talents-calendar-day-24-dro-fernandez-1765913419-185381.jpg\" "\\"Talents")
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