Barcelona’s 15-year-old La Masia jewel will sign a three-year contract amid Man City interest

The La Masia supply chain continues to churn out one special talent after the other, with a number of academy talents already securing their spots in the first-team setup despite their young age.

Indeed, Gavi, Alejandro Balde, Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, Fermin Lopez, and Marc Casado, among others, are all established first-team players while plenty more are knocking on the doors.

While it is true that Barça are set to lose two such exciting talents in Unai Hernandez and Pau Prim imminently, they have managed to secure the future of one of the club academy’s most precocious young talents – Baba Kourouma.

Baba Kourouma to sign a three-year contract

Indeed, according to Matteo Moretto, Baba Kourouma will sign a three-year contract with Barcelona once he turns 16, and the club plan to promote him to the Juvenil A setup soon.

Many are still unfamiliar with the younger brother of former Barcelona midfielder Ilaix Moriba, who is making waves in youth football at the age of 15.

Those familiar with the talent coming out of La Masia consider him to be the next big prospect to emerge from the youth academy.

The negotiation process has taken time due to the strong interest from several top clubs. The clubs most keen on signing him were Manchester City and Ajax.

But Kourouma has opted to remain at Barça and will sign a three-year contract once he turns 16 years old on February 23.

Standing at 1.76m and still growing, the physically gifted Kourouma is left-footed and so versatile that it is currently difficult to predict his ultimate position on the pitch.

His most recent appearance was at left-back, though he usually plays as a central defender. However, he is also capable of playing as a defensive midfielder or an attacking midfielder, or even on the wings.

Once his renewal is finalised, Barcelona plan to promote Kourouma and begin introducing him to senior squads.

It is expected that he will soon make the jump to the Juvenil A team and could even make appearances with Barça Atletic, before eventually breaking into the first team.