“Pau Cubarsí and Lamine Yamal will mark an era at Barça,” commented some Barcelona officials. Also the president Joan Laporta, who after the game spoke about Cubarsí with Xavi Hernández. Coach and president shared football impressions while watching the Arsenal-Porto penalty shootout in the room reserved for the coaching staff in Montjuïc. Nobody at Barcelona wants to lose sight of a central defender who, although he is 17 years old, is already the present and future of the club.
Everything indicates that there will be a happy ending, because Cubarsí, with a youth contract with Barça until 2026, already has a proposal on the table to improve his bond with the club of his life. “We are shaping the contract,” sources very close to the negotiation assure this newspaper. Beyond improving its conditions, work is being done so that the agreement, which will have a termination clause of 1,000 million euros, includes a commitment to extend the relationship until 2030, as has already happened with Lamine Yamal, Balde and Gavi. This commitment will be activated when Cubarsí reaches the age of majority. If this is the case, the club ensures that the center-back remains with the Blaugrana at least until he is 23 years old.
Barça hopes to close this agreement before the end of this season. No one is aware that his current clause is sweet: ten million. Nobody wants to lose him, and he doesn't want to leave. It was clear in Montjuïc when, after winning the MVP of the match, Cubarsí made it clear that the victory against Napoli, where he completed the 90 minutes, was “one of the best days of my life. The MVP trophy is deserved by the entire team. I am very happy, but we are a group,” stressed Cubarsí, who earned the applause of the Montjuïc audience, dedicated to the cause. Chanting his name is almost a habit.
He made his debut at the age of 16 in Salamanca in the Cup, in the League he has started eight games and in the Champions League he made his big debut. “When Cubarsi has the ball, my heart rate doesn't go up. That is his best virtue. “I'm calm that a 17-year-old kid has the ball,” the coach said. His colleagues also dedicated words full of affection to him. “He is a player to be here for a lifetime. He is also very humble and hard-working. When it is said that Barça is more than a club, it is because of these things,” said Sergi Roberto. “Pau's thing has no name. He has played great games. He deserves it, I am very happy,” Fermín said. “He is a spectacular talent. With the ball and also defensively. He is very humble and we complement each other very well,” added Araújo, his dance partner in the axis of the rear.
The message was repeated yesterday in the sports city. The coaching staff congratulated themselves for having retained the Estanyol centre-back who, last summer, was on the verge of leaving for Manchester City. Barça Atlètic had signed central defender Mika Faye for three million, and Cubarsí, who was 15 years old, seriously considered leaving the club of his life. As he was under 16 years of age and, after Brexit, England was left out of the European Union, the move that City had planned was for him to go to Girona and land in Manchester when he reached the age of majority. It was Òscar Hernández, Xavi's brother and second, who called the player to convince him that he had a future.
Pau Cubarsí did not need more, and he renewed until 2026 with a bond that, given its outbreak, has fallen short. Against Naples it was not only Osimhen's worst nightmare in moments of pressure. The statistics show that he only missed 4 of the 67 passes he gave and that he intervened 80 times, the third on the team behind Gündogan (89) and Cancelo (82). He also created a scoring chance with a through ball for Fermín. All this for the left profile, in theory, the least good side of him. That Cubarsi has adapted so well to playing on the left side is due to his training at La Masia. It was Iban Cuadrado, his youth coach, who placed him as a left center back for half a year to improve that profile.
His parents, Ramon and Gloria, have lived his evolution very closely. Also his older sister, Irene. The three witnessed the show on the first magical night that was experienced in Montjuïc. They already accompanied him at FC Vilarblareix, the football club where Cubarsí took his first steps with the ball. They targeted him because he never left the ball, but above all because he liked to have fun in the streets of his town, the small town of L'Estanyol, where there is no school or soccer club. With Cubarsí, FC Vilarblareix won several tournaments and children's leagues.
Then he went to Girona. When he was a junior, the former Barça youth football managers Jordi Roura and Aureli Altimira noticed him. It was in a tournament that was held in Cornellà six years ago when they decided to incorporate him. They explained the project to his parents, who immediately agreed with him. Now Barcelona fans are celebrating his breakout into the first team, but nothing scares Cubarsí. He slept peacefully at La Masia and yesterday, in recovery training, he behaved as always. “He spoke again about his town,” they say from the Blaugrana club.
