FCBARCELONA.CAT

22.12.2008 13:23

Home-grown star

Jordi Clos

Since making his official debut in the second League game of this season, Sergio Busquets has cemented his place in the first team. The midfielder has turned out in 17 of Barça’s 24 matches in three competitions.

Sergio Busquets is the surprise player of the season so far. The son of Carles Busquets, Barça’s goalkeeper in the 1990s, he joined the Under-18s A side in the summer of 2005 from Jabac, a club in his home town of Sabadell just outside Barcelona. After winning everything in a team also featuring Bojan, Giovani and Marc Crosas, last season he helped Barça’s reserve outfit win promotion to Second Division B, scoring 2 goals in 23 games with Pep Guardiola as manager.

League debut

Though he did play in the Catalan Cup in 2007/08 and in the Gamper Trophy this year, the 20-year-old’s League debut didn’t come until 13 September 2008 in the 1-1 draw with Racing Santander at Camp Nou. Since then he has become a virtual fixture in the side with 11 League games (7 in the starting XI), 4 Champions League matches and 2 in the Spanish Cup.

Changing role

Sergio Busquets shows how the role of the number 4 has changed at Barça since the end of the 1980s. Just like all his predecessors he is technically excellent and able to bring the ball out of defence. His size (he is over 6 feet tall) means he brings solidity to the midfield and enables him to get into attacking positions. So far this season he has found the net twice, both times in the Champions League against Basel and Shakhtar.