Former Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has claimed that Lionel Messi preferred linking up with Pedri over “some other players” at the club as the Argentine spotted the youngster’s talent right away before everybody else. Pedri moved to Camp Nou in 2020 when still a teenager, but swiftly went about demonstrating that he possessed the technical skills necessary to be a key player for the La Liga giants.
Lionel Messi, before moving to Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent in the summer of 2021, highly appreciated working with newcomer Pedri at Barca despite some of his other teammates’ possible scepticism at the time against the highly rated midfielder. Over the course of time, Pedri has now proved that he indeed is a crucial part of the club’s present as well as future.
‘He immediately noticed Pedri’s qualities’ – Koeman recalls how Lionel Messi loved working with the wonderkid
Pedri was recruited from UD Las Palmas by Barcelona in the summer of 2019, paying a significant €17.5m for his acquisition. Many raised their eyebrows over the Catalans spending such an amount on a teenager when they usually manufactured them in their famous La Masia academy. Pedri was sent back to Las Palmas on loan until the end of the 19/20 season. He was then right way inducted in the first-team for the 20/21 season.
It was then the Spanish wonderkid was introduced to the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Antoine Griezmann in the club’s first-team dressing room. While there was a lot of pressure on him to perform from the first day given the club was still recovering from their failed big-money moves of Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann. However, Koeman reveals that Messi was amongst the firsts to spot Pedri’s qualities and loved working with him from day one. The Dutchman told Andy van der Meijde’s YouTube channel:
“Messi was very humble. He immediately noticed Pedri’s qualities and was willing to combine with him during games, unlike with some other players.”
Koeman is also credited with the nurturing of Pedri alongside Messi. The Argentine played a key role in helping a then 17-year-old Pedri to adapt to the star studded dressing room of the club. Furthermore, Koeman’s comments can also be justified by Messi and Pedri’s link-up on the pitch which is quite evident from their playing time together. The duo helped Barcelona to a Copa del Rey triumph in Pedri’s second season at the club.
He has now also been an important player of Xavi’s set-up, having already won his second trophy in the Spanish Super Cup with the Blaugrana. Pedri has already racked up over a century of appearances for the club, netting 15 goals and providing 7 assists. He has featured 28 times this season for the Catalans, starting all but three of those games. For Koeman however, he could work with Pedri for only 56 games as he was sacked by the club in October 2021. Speaking of the club’s progress since then, Koeman added:
“Barca are doing great. I watched Barcelona vs Real Madrid, they played amazing football. They were so good. But, yeah, if you get up to 10-12 new players, things get a little easier. It depends on the quality of the squad. During my time that was different.”