Struggling Munir El Haddadi Heading Towards Crossroads in Barcelona Career

Munir El Haddadi is rapidly reaching a crossroads in his Barcelona career.

The 20-year-old is trying to force his way into manager Luis Enrique's thoughts, but in truth, he is far from the type of striker the manager can rely upon.

Forget that Barcelona have one of the best strike forces in football history. There will always be injuries and potential loss of form that dictates how the manager should make up his starting XI.

That and games such as the midweek tie against, with respect, lesser opposition from the lower leagues.

These are the games where youngsters such as Munir have to make their presence felt.

The goal that he scored from his own half in the UEFA Youth League Final against Benfica in April 2014 has become the biggest of millstones around his neck.

It was at that point when the youngster came to the attention of the wider footballing public and as such, his claims for a first-team berth couldn't be ignored.

However, a debut goal against Elche in August of that year, which did nothing to dampen hopes that Barca had unearthed a new gem, was the last goal he scored.

Albert Masnou of Sport notes:

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Now it's 431 days without scoring for the first team, more than 14 months, more than a year. A long time for a striker who was compared to Raul.

The wait is long too, for Luis Enrique, the coach who put his confidence in him and in the absence of results, is insisting the club bring in an outsider. 

"

The outsiders that Masnou speaks of are Dirk Kuyt and Alexandre Pato, according to Lluis Miguelsanz of Sport. Enrique is known to prefer Celta Vigo's Nolito, but it would appear that the cost of bringing the player back to Barcelona would be prohibitive.

It would be a great shame to see yet another La Masia graduate fail dismally on the biggest stage despite being given ample opportunity to prove his worth.

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Munir appeared to have all of the tools at his disposal at one stage but just hasn't brought it to the table when it mattered.

Snatching at chances that he would've gobbled up at B-team level has been a feature of his game since promotion to the senior side. There's a sense he is trying just a little too hard to impress rather than playing his natural game—a game that brought him to prominence in the first place, and not just at Barca.

It should also be remembered that not long after his debut for the Catalans, he made debuts for both the Spain U21 and senior sides. It was six weeks of a crazy whirlwind from which we can now say the player has never recovered.

The weight of expectation has fallen heavily on his young shoulders. He isn't the first, of course.

Gai Assulin, Jean-Marie Dongou and others have all been touted as the next big thing to come out of Barca's academy at one stage or another.

Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press

All have either never even made it to the first XI or had a brief dalliance before being sent back into footballing oblivion.

El Haddadi has now seen firsthand what a cold and callous business football can be. You can be flavour of the month one minute, then used up and spat out the next.

With Lionel Messi due back in a few weeks' time, and with the January transfer window opening a few more weeks after his return, you'd have to be the most optimistic of Barca fans to think that Munir still has a future at the club.