How quitting Barca for Man City helped put Eric Garcia ahead of game in Spain

Published on: 04 April 2020

Eric Garcia's decision to leave Barcelona in 2017 is no longer uncommon. The lack of a clear progression pathway for the club's top youth prospects means plenty of them have jumped ship.

Manchester City benefitted from the arrival of both Garcia and Adrian Bernabe from the Catalan club, and both moves have been mutually profitable.

City boss Pep Guardiola gets to call upon a young central defender at a time where there is to be a changing of the guard at the Etihad, while the 19-year-old has a realistic chance of proving himself ahead of time to Spain boss Luis Enrique.

A stylistic match

While La Masia looks to arm its students with the tools required to play football at the top level in a possession-heavy and aesthetically-pleasing manner, by 2017 there was no certainty that success at Barca's academy would lead to a first-team breakthrough.

That was the situation facing Garcia, so a move to Manchester was his best hope of getting an immediate chance to play a flowing, tactically intelligent football.

Guardiola enshrines plenty of elements from La Masia's teachings in his coaching to stand Garcia in good stead when acclimatising in England - such as how to use the ball with composure, how to create space and how to play out calmly from defence.

Opportunity and responsibility

Despite Garcia only playing in a handful of competitive games across the Premier League, League Cup, Champions League and FA Cup, that is more than can be said for Barca's young defenders who have sat behind Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti and Clement Lenglet in the pecking order over the last calendar year.

Of course, he is yet to feature regularly enough to come into the equation for Spain's senior side, but Garcia is playing above his age with his country's under-21s having already captained the under-19s. For City, too, he has captained their under-18s and under-19s in the UEFA Youth League. His leadership qualities are clear.

At a time when Aymeric Laporte is City's pillar of strength at centre back, Nicolas Otamendi looks rash and John Stones struggles to recover his confidence, next season feels like one of great potential for Garcia.

Just as Phil Foden is being lined up as the heir to David Silva, it could soon be a partnership of Laporte and Garcia in defence. That would be the dream situation that his agents will have mapped out over the last three years.

Time to make an impression

If Garcia had remained in Barcelona, his hopes would have been set on a couple of games in the Copa del Rey next season. Right now, proving to Luis Enrique that he can play a role for Spain at the next World Cup doesn't seem a million miles away.

Spanish national coaches have long been confident about his potential and temperament at youth level, while the question of Sergio Ramos' international retirement is sure to arise soon.

The 34-year-old Raul Albiol has been given a chance at centre back for La Roja of late, while the likes of Pau Torres and Mario Hermoso will hope to break into the reckoning alongside the more established figure of Inigo Martinez.

With the era of Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique set to come to an end over the next year or so, there is room for a young, confident central defender to make his name for Spain.

Had he stayed at Barcelona, Garcia wouldn't have had the audacity to even dream. But with City and Guardiola, he has an outside chance of taking a huge stride forward in the space of just one Premier League campaign.

Source: m.allfootballapp.com

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