Fermin Lopez is indeed a Barcelona youth product, but many fail to realise that he did not start his career with the Blaugrana.
Born in Andalusia, he joined the youth system of Real Betis in 2012 at the age of nine and it wasn’t until 2016 that Barcelona came knocking on his doors. While it did take him a while, the 20-year-old has slowly climbed up the ladder.
How did Barcelona sign Fermin Lopez?
Ligue 1 side Toulouse may be struggling in the bottom half of Ligue 1, but they did manage to pull off an upset when they beat Liverpool in their UEFA Europa League tie earlier this week.
The context of the aforementioned information is Toulouse manager Carles Martinez, who happens to have worked for Barcelona between 2015 and 2019.
Interestingly enough, it was during this time that the Blaugrana sent him to scout Fermin and the story that followed next is history.
While speaking in an interview with RAC1 (h/t SPORT), he reminisced how impressed he was by Fermin’s performance some six or seven years back.
“In Andalusia, we always followed Fermin from Betis and Carlitos from Sevilla. Altimira and Roura made me go to see him at Ciudad Deportiva del Betis.
“I called Aureli and told him that we should sign him. I told him that he was very small. At first, we did not sign him, but eventually, we did and he joined the junior A team,” he explained.
Martinez also remembered the difficulties Fermin had to face during his initial days at the club, saying that he had to suffer a lot because of his physique.
“His story has been difficult. He has suffered a lot because he was very small. He made a difference, he generated a lot of spark because he has a lot of character, but his strength sometimes did not allow him to do things better.
“You could see that he was talented and that it was a matter of for the body to reach him,” he said.
Fermin now a key member of Xavi’s plan
Fermin spent the 2022-23 season on loan at Linares and made a solid impression during his stint away from Barcelona.
Quite particularly, Fermín successfully earned Xavi’s trust during the pre-season tour, securing a spot in the first team.
His official debut took place on August 27 against Villarreal, marking the beginning of a promising journey.
Since then, he has played 11 matches, contributing with two goals, and is slowly growing in prominence in the first-team setup.
