Gerard Deulofeu: Scout Report

Gerard Deulofeu playing for Everton

Barça’s youth system has been an example for every football club in the world. La Masia has produced world-famous young talents like Xavi, Iniesta and Messi. One of the important components of this structure is former technical director Pep Segura. He stated “It is about creating one philosophy and one mentality from bottom to top”. This mentality has been a main idea of the club for a long time and has helped the club to win trophies over the last couple of seasons. The latest product of La Masia is young Gerard Deulofeu.

Profile

Born in the Catalonian village of Riudarenes, Gerard Deulofeu inevitably joined the best football academy in the region, still shy of his 10th birthday. At first sight, everyone realized that he is a versatile player; he went on to make a huge impact at all age groups of youth ranks at Barcelona. Deulofeu made a great initial start to his Barca career. At the beginning some Barca fans considered him to be Messi’s predecessor, but despite the comparisons, everyone noticed that he is a different type of player.

Gerard Deulofeu made his debut for Barcelona’s B team in the Segunda division in a 4-1 win over Cordoba. It was his one and only appearance for the side in the 2010/11 season.

The following season, still only 17-years-old, Gerard Deulofeu became a regular for Barcelona B. He made a total of 36 appearances scoring 9 goals; the first of which was in his 4th appearance in a 2-1 loss to Hercules. A month later he would make his first-team debut, coming on as a second-half substitute for David Villa in a 5-0 win over Mallorca. His second B-team goal came just a week later. He would go on to score 7 more goals, including a brace each against Cartagena and Xerez. The side would finish a disappointing 8th in that campaign.

The 2012/13 campaign couldn’t have gone off to a better start for Gerard Deulofeu, on a personal note. The youngster scored the first hat-trick of his career on the opening day of the Segunda season, however, his team would end up losing 4-5 at home to eventual promotion winners— Almeria. It was a breakthrough season for the young Spaniard; he would finish the season as Barcelona B’s top scorer with 18 goals, and 6 assists to add to that as he made a total of 33 appearances.

He scored some important goals through the season, including a penalty against Real Madrid Castilla in the aptly named ‘Mini-Clasico’, as Barcelona B ran off 3-1 winners. The season also saw Deulofeu receive his first red card. Away to Ponferradina, the Spaniard opened the scoring but soon found his side trailing 3-1, he scored his second from the spot 4 minutes from time, but in stoppage time he let his frustrations get the better of him, receiving his marching orders for a second yellow.

Last season Deulofeu even made 3 first-team appearances. The first of which was his Champions League début, coming on as a substitute for Pedro in a 3-0 away victory against Spartak Moscow in the group stages. Few weeks later he replaced Christian Tello at the Nou Camp in a 0-0 draw against Benfica. His 2nd (and so far last) La Liga appearance would once again come against Mallorca, in another 5-0 victory.

Spain’s youth setup is as successful as the senior side. With Gerard Deulofeu an instrumental part of the side, they won back-to-back U-19 European Championship in 2011 and 2012 beating Czech Republic and Greece respectively. It’s not often that the same player is the focal point of a side across two U-19 Euros, but Deulofeu got better with the second tournament. Besides scoring 2 goals and creating 5, including laying off the winner for Jese in the final against Greece, Deulofeu was named as the tournament’s Best Player.

In the summer of 2013, he was in Turkey for FIFA U-20 World Cup. Spain were the favourites to win the World Cup but it was a disappointing performance. They lost against Uruguay at the Quarter Final stage which isn’t acceptable for a Spanish national team. Deulofeu has made 54 appearances (27 in major tournaments) for various Spanish youth teams, scoring a commendable 18 goals.