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Oriol Soldevila’s to Birmingham City has been confirmed.
A few days after the 19-year-old’s announcement on Instagram, the Blues ratified the transfer.
The teenager, who left Barcelona’s mythical La Masia at the end of last season, tried the Blues and inspired enough to win a two-year contract at St Andrew’s.
He is expected to play basically with the Under-23, with the aim of being part of Aitor Karanka’s senior team.
Is that what you want to know about him?
A 19-year-old player who plays in the centre of the offensive field and who has crossed the EU formula Cornella and spent a few years in Barcelona. He was released this summer.
He started playing futsal at the age of five and noticed through a Espanyol coach who invited him to a seven-a-run try, so he had to stop by and buy a pair of boots to start training.
He advanced and US Cornella still called him to keep playing with his friends.
Eventually, he agreed to move to Cornella where he was one of the main actors.
Barcelona saw him twice, even though everything took him away after 4 years at Cornella.
Soldevila is also a motorsport enthusiast and considers Spanish motorcycle racing Marc Marquez as his hero.
Indeed, he has been in his tyre tracks for years training with his grandfather Oriol Puig, national motocross champion and director of the technical commission of the International Motorcycle Federation.
But when he signed for Barcelona, he was not allowed to pursue interest and had to stay on two feet instead of two wheels.
He spent two years in the Blue League, the Under-19 League in his first season.
Last season he played in the UEFA Youth League, betting on the bench against Inter and Borussia Dortmund. Unfortunately, Barca ended up in the rear of his organization and did qualify for the circular of 16.
He left the club at the end of his year.
Mike Dodds, the Blues’ head of professional development, thinks he’s brilliant, and told the club’s website, “Solde is a left-wing player who can play anywhere on the front line, probably a guy seven, 10 or 11.
“With the limitations we’ve had with him, because he obviously hasn’t played or trained for months because of the existing situation, he looks very technically intelligent.
“He has a very intelligent tactical view of movements and knows when to make deep and long passes.
“He is an offensive player, a third definitive player: goal scorer and creator.
“Then, from what we saw, we are very excited for him.
“He went from Cornella to Barcelona and I know that Barcelona, because of the conversations I had with Solde, presented him with a one-year extension on his contract, however, he felt that his path probably crashed a little there.
“He’s going to spend some time with the under-23s getting used to the culture, the taste of the game and all that things in sight, if he does it right, knocking on the door of Aitor Karanka. “