Profiling Barcelona Players Going to the FIFA U-20 World Cup

Chasing a senior title in La Liga they may be, but Barcelona's quest to be the best team both domestically and on the global scale means the search for future greats is never-ending.

With La Masia a much-heralded source of top-tier talents for the Catalan club over the past couple of decades—even if that output has stuttered of late—it should be no surprise a handful of the club's starlets are set to compete among the elite of their age group at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Hosted by South Korea from Saturday until June 11, 24 teams will compete for the title—though Spain are not among them, thus no home-nation players will compete for Barca.

The likes of Carles Alena, Alex Carbonell or Marc Cucurella may have been involved had Spain's young side made it to the finals, but the long qualification process meant that was never a possibility; to reach the U-20 World Cup, European teams must finish in the top five at the previous year's UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

Since Spain failed to even qualify for that tournament, finishing behind England in their qualification group, they were out of the running for 2017's U-20 World Cup.

Even without those, Barca have three youngsters set to be on show in the finals in South Korea, with a fourth of interest also featuring, having previously been at La Masia and expected to return before long.

Seungwoo Lee, South Korea

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Perhaps the biggest name in Asian youth football over the past few years, many have been waiting for Seungwoo Lee to explode and display his talents on a consistent basis—which was an inevitable consequence of being tagged the "Korean Messi" as soon as Barca swooped for him in 2011.

Lee, who tends to play from the left side of the front line for Barca, was one of nine players at La Masia banned from playing for Barcelona until they turned 18 after the club infringed FIFA youth transfer rules, meaning his development was temporarily on hold. However, he has featured regularly in the UEFA Youth League for Barca this term, scoring twice en route to the side's semi-final exit.

In March, B/R spoke to Spanish journalist Albert Roge, who noted Lee had an incredible quality about his game but that he also struggled to bridge the physical gap to other players because of his slight build.

Having turned 19, next term will be critical in Lee's development; will he move up to Barca B from the Juvenil A team, or will he head out on loan? Sport reported that the latter might be likely, possibly to Germany's Bundesliga or the Eredivisie in Netherlands, but if he shines at the U-20 World Cup, that might be reconsidered.

With Barca B fighting for promotion—they won the Segunda B Group III and face a play-off semi-final against Cultural Leonesa—there's another angle to consider with Lee's future: Is he good enough to step up to Spain's second tier?

Lee has tipped himself to shine at the finals, per Joo Kyung-don of Korean outlet Yonhap News Agency, even suggesting he'd score the team's first goal: "I don't feel that much pressure or responsibility. If I can just enjoy playing football, I think I can create good opportunities. Some of us have been playing together from the U17 level, and we trust each other. We need to think of every match like it's the final and have to give out our best efforts from the start."

South Korea's hopes might not rest entirely on his shoulders, but there will be plenty of eyes on him, waiting to see whether he justifies the long-held hype.

Seung-Ho Paik, South Korea

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The Barca-South Korea links don't begin and end with Lee, however. Team-mate for club and country is Seung-Ho Paik, almost a full year older than Lee and another who was halted from playing because of the transfer-ban fallout.

Paik debuted for Barca B in early 2016—a minute off the bench—and his first more meaningful involvement came in November, when he played the final quarter of an hour against L'Hospitalet and made the bench for three of the next five matches.

With injuries disrupting him and competition fierce, he hasn't been involved much since, and so the decision was taken to allow him to spend more time training with his national team in preparation for the U-20 World Cup.

"Thanks to my club head coach, I was able to spend more time with the national team, and I'm ready [for the finals]," Joo quoted him as saying. Paik continued:

"I think I'm about 80 percent fit, but my stamina is getting better and I'm getting close to 100 percent.

Although we make mistakes, the coach tells us to play with more confidence, and that's why we are making developments. The players are preparing [for] the World Cup with earnest desire to make good results. I hope we can show that to the fans."

Usually playing as a central midfielder, Paik has already spent time training with the seniors at Barca under Luis Enrique. Former scout Albert Puig once spoke in glowing terms to Ignasi Oliva of Goal about Paik, saying: "[He] has undergone an incredible physical growth in the last two years. But he still has to work out definitively what is his best position in order to use his talents most effectively."

Santiago Bueno, Uruguay

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A much more recent addition to the Barcelona setup, Santiago Bueno only joined in January but has his eyes set on a long-term stay at the Camp Nou.

The Uruguayan central defender is only 18 but made a cameo appearance soon after joining in the UEFA Youth League, briefly featuring as the holding midfielder.

Bueno acknowledged that he has been compared to a combination of Gerard Pique and Diego Godin, but told Mundo Deportivo he wanted to be seen as his own man—for many years to come (h/t Samuel Marsden of ESPN FC): "That's what people say [about me]. But I'm Santiago Bueno, and I have my own desire to be a success.

"I'm serious and committed to what I do. My idea is to stay here for 15 years, to play for Barcelona and to win a lot of titles."

Bueno thanked compatriot Luis Suarez for helping him settle in after his move from Penarol, per Sport (in Spanish). Naturally, he has some way to go before being seen on the same level as the forward for both club and country. Roge noted that Bueno didn't appear to be overly aggressive in his early days at the club but that there would be a period of adaptation to go through.

Next season might be when Bueno takes part on a more regular basis, particularly with the B team. He's one to keep an eye on considering how Barca have targeted young centre-backs with immense promise of late. Samuel Umtiti is already a big success, Yerry Mina and Davinson Sanchez are long-term targets of the club, per AS (in Spanish), and Bueno will also have his chance to stake his claim.

Takefusa Kubo, Japan

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Those are the three Barca starlets hoping to shine on the world stage in South Korea, but there's also a fourth youngster worth taking note of: Takefusa Kubo.

At just 15, Kubo is comfortably one of the youngest players at the U-20 World Cup—there are a clutch of 17-year-olds, none aged 16 and one other, Ousseynou Niang of Senegal, at 15.

Kubo will be representing Japan and could come up against Bueno, but the two haven't crossed paths at Barcelona: Kubo departed the Camp Nou club in March 2015 as a result of being ineligible to play, just as with Lee and Paik, after the club's transfer ban and consequent punishments were handed out.

Still only 14 at the time, the decision was taken for him to return to his home nation to continue his development, signing for FC Tokyo.

John Duerden of ESPN FC noted that media interest around Kubo was so great that on his cup debut for the first team, aged 15, the crowd had doubled from the previous cup match while "photographers were fighting for space behind the goal [and] more column inches were written about a second-half substitute than what actually happened on the pitch."

Like Lee and Paik, Kubo cannot play for Barcelona until he turns 18. That's still more than two full seasons away, but Duerden's report suggested Barca are keeping an eye on his progress with an expectation to eventually re-sign him.

There's a long way to go, and much can happen to players between 15 and 18, but interest around Kubo is so high his mere inclusion at the U-20 World Cup is worth paying attention to—it's up to him to showcase that talent on the pitch.