Yamine Lamal could be in line to make his Barcelona debut on Wednesday when Spain's champions-elect play Rayo Vallecano away.
Lamal, born in Spain to a Moroccan father and mother from Equatorial Guinea, does not turn 16 until July but was named on the bench by Barca boss Xavi for Sunday's 1-0 La Liga win over Atletico Madrid.
Here we take a look at the youngest players to play for the Catalan giants.
Mario Rosas – 17 years
Current Barcelona boss Xavi described Rosas as a hybrid between Michael Laudrup and Lionel Messi. The hyperbole didn't stop there, with Xavi, one of the greatest midfielders of any era, telling French football magazine So Foot: "If you saw how he played at 15, 16 or 17, you would say, ‘When this guy makes the first team, the Camp Nou will hallucinate.’
A graduate of the club's fabled la Masia academy, Rosas made his one and only Barca appearance, on the final day of the 1997/98 campaign against Salamanca, but was hooked at half time by coach Louis van Gaal and the Spanish champions went on to lose 4-1.
Alejandro Balde – 17 years
Born in Barcelona to a Guinean father and a Dominican mother, Balde joined the club's youth ranks in 2011 at the age of eight. Groomed as Jordi Alba's long-term replacement at left-back, Balde made his first-team debut as a substitute in a 3-0 Champions League loss to Bayern Munich on September 14, 2021, age 17 years, 331 days. Six days later he made his La Liga debut against Granada.
Adama Traore – 17 years
Traore was born in just outside Barcelona in L'Hospitalet to Malian parents and joined the club he supported age eight. After starring for Barcelona's B team, the winger was handed his first-team debut in a 4-0 home win over Granada, replacing Neymar no less, on November 22, 2013 at age 17.
He was sold to Aston Villa age 19 after making four Barca appearances before making his name in England with Wolverhampton Wanderers. Traore returned to Barcelona for a loan spell last season but failed to earn a permanent move and is now back at Molineux.
Pedri – 17 years
Already Las Palmas' youngest scorer – aged 16 years, nine months and 23 days – midfielder Pedri officially signed for Barcelona in July 2020 for an initial €5 million fee. He made his first-team debut as a substitute in a 4-0 thrashing of Villarreal on September 27, 2020, almost two months before he turned 18.
Gerard Deulofeu – 17 years
A player with an almost impossibly-hard-to-spell surname debuted for Barca as a prodigious 17-year-old on October 29, 2011, replacing Cesc Fabregas in a 5-0 win over Mallorca at Camp Nou.
The wispy winger had mixed success on loan at Everton and Sevilla before a more productive spell at AC Milan prompted Barcelona to re-sign him in 2017. He added to his two previous Barca appearances with 10 more outings in 2017/18 before being sold to Watford.
Oriol Riera – 17 years
On December 17, 2003, Riera fulfilled a lifelong dream by appearing as a substitute for Barca's first team in a Copa del Rey win away at Murcia. It would be the striker's only senior appearance for the Catalan giants, aged 17 years, five months and 14 days.
Nano – 17 years
The winger made four appearances for Barcelona before being sold on to Atletico Madrid and then spending the remainder of his career in and out of Spain's second division. He debuted against Real Zaragoza in the 1999/2000 campaign.
Lionel Messi – 17 years
On October 16, 2003 the world would get its first official look at a player who would go on to be arguably the greatest of all time. Barca boss Frank Rijkaard summoned Lionel Messi – at a tender 17 years, three months, and 22 days old – from the bench during a Liga match against Espanyol.
At the time Messi was at the time the youngest player to represent Barcelona in an official competition, and would go on to become the club's all-time top scorer and one of its most decorated players before leaving to join Paris Saint-Germain in 2021.
Marc Muniesa – 17 years
The defender made his debut for Barca's first team aged 17 years and 57 days on May 23, 2009 as a substitute in a 1–0 La Liga home loss against Osasuna. He now plays in Qatar having spent five years at Stoke City and two at Girona.
Gavi – 17 years
Pedri's partner in crime in this current Barcelona midfield and one of the best youth products to emerge from la Masia in many years.
Gavi has established himself as a mainstay for Barca boss Xavi and one of Spain's most promising players since making his debut in August 2021 aged 17 years and 24 days in a 2-1 victory over Getafe.
Bojan Krkic – 17 years
It's hard to believe but Krkic's arrival in the Barca first team garnered the same sort of fanfare as Messi's having bagged a rumoured 900 goals for Barca's youth sides.
He made his official debut on September 16, 2007 as a 78th-minute substitute against Osasuna, aged 17 years and 19 days. The expectation placed on Krkic as the 'new Messi' proved impossible to live up to, though, and a nomadic career saw him take in stints at AC Milan, Stoke City, Montreal Impact and Vissel Kobe, among others.
Ansu Fati – 16 years
If Krkic failed to live up to expectations, one player who exceeded it early on in his career was Ansu Fati.
On August 31, 2019, a week after making his senior La Liga debut for Barcelona as a late replacement against Real Betis, Fati scored his first Barca goal in a 2–2 away draw bat Osasuna.
Aged 16 years and 304 days, the Spaniard became Barcelona's youngest goalscorer and the third-youngest scorer in the history of La Liga.
Vicenc Martinez – 16 years
The player who holds the accolade as Barcelona's youngest player is defender Vicenec Martinez, who in October 1941 made his bow at the age of 16 years, 10 months and five days in a 4-3 defeat to bitter rivals Real Madrid.
