Barcelona sign 16-year-old wonderkid
Cameron Smith
- 5 May 2022 17:06 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona have reportedly completed the signing of 16-year-old defender Martin Georgiev from Bulgarian side Slavia Sofia.
According to Diario Sport, Barcelona have added Georgiev to their ranks ahead of the summer window opening. The player will join Barca's B side next season rather than be thrown straight into the first-team fold.
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Georgiev will become the third Bulgarian player to feature for Barcelona once an official announcement is made by the club and he plays in their famous strip for the first time.
Hristo Stoichkov and Kun Temenuzhkov are the two other Bulgarians to play for the club based at Camp Nou.
Who is Martin Georgiev
The Bulgarian defender has been on the Blaugrana's radar for a while according to Sport, and the club believe centre-back is an area of need for Barcelona B. Gerard Pique is nearing the end of his career and supplying the youth team with more talent now is what Barca have done with the signing of Georgiev.
Despite his young age, Georgiev has already played seven games for Salvia Sofia's first-team, with five of those appearances coming in the Bulgarian first tier. However, his first start in the competition resulted in a 58th minute red card against Ludogorets. He's since made one more start in the league, with the rest of his appearances coming from off the bench as a late substitute.
Georgiev is regarded as one of the country's biggest talents, which has been recognised by Barcelona. He has been called up for Bulgaria's U17 and U19 squads, but is yet to play a competitive match for either side. He has made his debut in friendlies, however.
While focus is on Xavi's first-team signings, Barcelona are reportedly keen to maintain the strong work of La Masia in developing young talents. By adding youngsters from across Europe they've managed to improve their pool of young talents drastically recently. Pedri is one such example following his arrival from Las Palmas and Georgiev is another.
