Midfielder Gavi was awarded the Kopa Trophy for the best U-21 player on Monday. The 18-year-old thus replaces a teammate as the award winner.
Luis Enrique didn’t want to waste any time. Gavi was going to be an international anyway, so he might as well become one now, the coach of Spain’s La Roja said before his nomination just over a year ago. He even became the youngest – at 17 years and 62 days. At the time, he had less than 300 league minutes to his name, and his La Liga debut was just 38 days ago.
There is no sign of a career break after the steep rise. In the meantime, Gavi has played 58 matches for FC Barcelona, but the midfielder, who came of age in August, needs to improve his goal quota (two goals). But he has already scored one special goal: He scored for Spain in the Czech Republic (2:2) in June 2022 and thus also became the youngest goal scorer of the 2010 world champions.
There is no doubt that the future belongs to Gavi, who moved from Betis youth to La Masia in 2015 – certainly not at the Catalans. A month ago, his contract was extended until 2026 and the exit clause was set at one billion euros.
Now he can first enjoy the Kopa Trophy – named after the former Ballon d’Or winner Raymond Kopa – for the best U-21 player of the past season. He takes over from a team-mate. Pedri had received the award the previous year.
Jude Bellingham, Karim Adeyemi (both Borussia Dortmund), Jamal Musiala, Ryan Gravenberch (both FC Bayern), Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen) and Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig) were among the ten nominees for this year’s award, which has been presented since 2018. Musiala made it to third place behind Real Madrid’s Eduardo Camavinga, Bellingham came fourth.
