The teenage Canary Islander is living up to Andrés Iniesta comparisons on the field and raising environmental awareness
Xavi insisted that he was not just building up Pedri, not least because Pedri “doesn’t like eulogies”. “You can end up believing it,” Pedri says, and although his life has changed “completely”, he says his play has not and he gives the impression of being unaffected by it all, as if he is not listening and the pressure does not exist. The kid who turned up at the Camp Nou with his kit in a carrier bag would certainly never make a claim so grand, or indeed any claim at all.
At Las Palmas, Pedri – in action here against Tenerife in 2020 – was given his debut at the age of 16.Pedri was 13 when it was published but you can hear him on the pages. This is his place, which is one of the reasons he supported Adidas’s Run for the Oceans campaign against plastic pollution.
“He was a good player, very calm, a defensive midfielder who didn’t fight much. We would go down to Bajamar and play. Anywhere: the beach, on the courts, the concrete in front of the house, anywhere there was space. There were bollards to stop the cars and that would be one goal, a T-shirt the other. My dad used to be a goalkeeper. We would play kids against parents, and he would go in goal. The next day he couldn’t even move.
Enforced absence has only underlined his significance. Xavi sees in him the player who best reflects the identity he seeks at Barcelona. “Pedri gives us that pause, he doesn’t lose the ball, he’s always well positioned, he uses both feet. He dominates space and time perfectly: he’s a superlative player,” Xavi said. “We have to look after him.” Of the 12 league games Pedri played, Barcelona didn’t lose any.
“Xavi has a very clear idea, model: he is very clear about what each of us have to do: the inside midfielders have to be between the lines, the ball moved from one side to the other. The things he did when he played – and it was spectacular watching him – he tries to inculcate in us. Thehave to hold our position. If you get out of position, then when you lose the ball you can’t press the way you need to: you won’t get there.
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