Spain Call-Up for Munir El Haddadi Has Come Too Soon for the Barcelona Forward

It has been a whirlwind of a summer for Barcelona forward Munir El Haddadi. The 19-year-old made his official debut with the Spain U-19 team a few months ago, followed by his U-21 debut not too long after.

If that weren’t enough, the La Masia graduate has started both of Barcelona’s La Liga matches this season, scoring a goal in his debut with the first team. But the explosion of success is far from over for young Munir.

After Diego Costa pulled up injured recently, he was dropped from the Spanish national team and replaced by none other than the Barcelona prodigy. Munir is now set to possibly make his debut with the La Roja, but it may be coming a bit too soon for the 19-year-old.

Last season, the world became well aware of Munir due to his incredible showing with the Barcelona side in the UEFA Youth League competition. The striker dazzled in the youth tournament and became a household name quickly.

This summer he trained solely with the first team and was a regular face in preseason matches. As the season began, fans expected to see him remain with the senior squad while Luis Suarez served his ban, but not many could have predicted his heavy involvement thus far.

Munir has been a regular in the starting lineup, linking up with the likes of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta to create some truly wonderful moments for La Blaugrana. There is no denying the talent this kid has, but there comes a point when the pressure is simply too much to handle.

It is an age-old story in football.

Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images

A young and talented player starts to dazzle and is soon thrown into the fire, only to see his development stunted and his once promising career not quite pan out the way everyone expected.

While that may not be the case with Munir, it has been the story of many other players. It is easy to say that the Barcelona forward is immensely talented and such a thing could not happen to him, but that excuse has been used before.

The truth of the matter is that Munir is an extremely gifted player who has the potential to have an amazing professional career. But for that to happen, he needs to develop properly and be handled with care.

Starting a few games for Barcelona early in the season is a lot of pressure, even if it doesn’t show. However, being called up to the Spain national team is something else all together and is one more giant load of pressure for Munir to carry.

Honestly, the 19-year-old could prove that age is just a number. He could light it up for the national team and become a regular face in the first team squad. Maybe. Or he could possibly find all this pressure too much to handle and start to slow down, only to have people begin to judge him because he isn’t achieving the same level of success.

What it really comes down to is nurturing a player that is showing great promise for the future. He may have just turned 19 a few days ago, but Munir is still a teenager and must be handled the right way if he is to reach the level that his hype suggests.

Spain could possibly be calling him up simply to ensure he doesn’t elect to play for Morocco, but even that may be throwing the forward into the spotlight too early.

Munir is still enjoying his whirlwind of a year at this point, but when that comes to an end, will the hype die out? Barcelona must be very careful to make sure the 19-year-old is given every chance to reach his peak, and that means limiting the pressure he faces right now.

Is it wise for Munir to be called up to the Spain national team? Is the Barcelona forward facing too much pressure? Leave your thoughts and comments below!