Barça have handed most minutes to U-21 players in the big five leagues this season

According to data from the Opta Analyst, Barcelona have given more playing minutes to Under-21 players than any other club across the big five leagues of Europe in the 2021/22 season.

After having gone through a lull with regard to integrating young talent coming through the ranks into the first team, Barcelona have again turned to youth to build the senior team around.

It started with the emergence of Ansu Fati a couple of years ago, while the likes of Pedri (arriving from Las Palmas), Oscar Mingueza and Ilaix Moriba got plenty of playing minutes in the first team during the 2020/21 season under Ronald Koeman.

As per the data from The Analyst, Barça handed 5573 minutes to players aged under 21 in La Liga last season, with more than 40% of it coming from Pedri. Just halfway into the ongoing campaign, they have already given 4975 minutes on the pitch to youngsters below 21 years of age.

Even though Pedri has missed a large part of the season, the emergence of Eric Garcia, Nico Gonzalez, Gavi, Ez Abde, Ferran Jutgla, among others, has led to the Catalans topping the charts for the most minutes for Under-21 players across the top five leagues in Europe.

As things stand, it is Garcia who has clocked the most number of minutes by an Under-21 player for Barça, having played for 1099 minutes. Following him is 17-year-old sensation Gavi with 1064 minutes, with Sergino Dest coming in third with 882 minutes.

The next closest team to the Blaugrana are Bundesliga bigwigs Bayer Leverkusen, with 4034 minutes being afforded to youngsters below 21.

Some of the call-ups for players might have been forced due to injury problems or their inability to bring in new superstars because of their financial issues. But it is clear that Barcelona are once again relying on youth and talents coming through La Masia to build a team for the future.