Xavi Espart: Barcelona's Rising Star and Future Lahm
In Barcelona, they already know this story by heart. Local kid, La Masia prodigy, ball glued to his feet. But Xavi Espart is bending the script.
He is not just another academy graduate. He is the player Hansi Flick is quietly shaping into his own Philipp Lahm.
A Barcelona boy who never left
Espart grew up in the Catalan capital and walked into La Masia at eight. He started out as a midfielder, sharing dressing rooms and training pitches with Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi and Marc Bernal. Same age group, same pitches, same expectations.
By 16, his role was already changing. Coaches pushed him between midfield and right-back, and he handled both in the UEFA Youth League with the U19s. One week dictating play, the next locking down a flank.
Then came the season that changed everything.
When Juliano Belletti took charge of the youth side, Espart became a pillar of a team that swept a domestic and European treble in 2024-25, mostly from right-back. On the big continental nights, he delivered: a goal and an assist in a 3-2 win over Newcastle, then the winner against Paris Saint-Germain. Those were the games that put his name on Flick’s desk.
Shortly after that PSG strike, the call came from the first team.
Debut under the lights, setback in the shadows
His first taste of senior life was cruelly delayed. Espart spent the early weeks of the campaign as an unused substitute, on the verge of a debut, when a knee injury stopped him cold. More than three months out. For many teenagers, that is a derailment.
Flick didn’t let it be.
Barcelona were 1-0 down at St James’ Park in the Champions League last-16 first leg in March when the German turned to the teenager. Minute 88. One goal down. Away. He sent Espart on for captain Ronald Araujo.
The pressure could have swallowed him. It didn’t.
Espart hounded Joe Willock all the way to the byline, slid in to win the ball, sprang up and found Lamine Yamal. Minutes later, Barça had their equaliser. The academy kid had done the dirty work in the shadows of the move.
"When I saw myself coming onto the pitch, I couldn't believe it. I enjoyed it so much and my emotions were running high," he told the club’s website afterwards.
Five days later, Flick trusted him from the start in a wild 5-2 La Liga win over Sevilla at Camp Nou. It wasn’t spotless. Sevilla’s press rushed him, a few loose touches crept in, but he fought through every duel and grew into the game. The nerves faded; the ball started to stick.
He only made four more league appearances in that title-winning campaign, yet it was obvious: Flick had marked his name in ink, not pencil.
"For a young player like me, the manager's trust in me has meant everything," Espart said. "His confidence in me has allowed me to stay calm, without pressure, and play the way I know how."
Running Spain’s midfield, then sprinting back to work
The summer confirmed what Barcelona had suspected. For Spain’s U19s at the European Championship in Wales, Espart was not a full-back. He was the heartbeat.
Stationed in midfield, he nipped past opponents, hunted the ball, then moved it with a calm arrogance. He dictated games. In the 7-0 demolition of hosts Wales, he cushioned the ball to himself and thumped in his first goal of the tournament. In the semi-final against Croatia, he struck again, this time with a 12th-minute opener.
Often, he would collect possession, look up and see all 11 opponents in his sightline. It didn’t faze him. A piercing pass through the middle, a quick one-two to break a line, or a surge straight at defenders – he found solutions.
Spain didn’t concede once all tournament. Espart made the Team of the Tournament. He went home with a medal and a reputation enhanced.
He also went home with no holiday.
Officially promoted to the first team and handed the number 12 shirt, he reportedly scrapped his summer break to keep the rhythm from the Euros. Flick rewarded that decision by using him at right-back throughout pre-season.
"I feel Flick's confidence and I want to stay in the first team; you have to take advantage of the opportunities," Espart said. "Since coming back from the European Championship, I've tried to give 100 per cent here and show that I belong here and what I'm capable of."
The friendly against Birmingham underlined that intent. Espart looked composed, tight to his winger, and comfortable whether he stepped inside as an inverted full-back or slid into midfield to control the tempo. Flick was impressed enough to say the teenager "has made it clear to us that he is a top-level player."
Solving a problem from the wrong side
Right-back has long been a headache for Barcelona. Their summer money went into Rodri, Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi, leaving Jules Kounde and Joao Cancelo as the only obvious options on that flank.
Logically, Espart seemed the perfect internal solution there.
Instead, Flick flipped the board.
Espart has started all four La Liga matches this season at left-back, pushing Alejandro Balde to the bench. Out of position, on paper. On the pitch, you wouldn’t know.
He impressed against Elche, strong in duels and sharp in possession, and capped the performance with his first assist – a diagonal pass into Fermin on the edge of the box to complete a 5-0 win.
Four days later against Athletic Club, he turned up the volume. He crashed into physical battles, stepped into midfield to build attacks, and occasionally drove straight through the centre looking for a gap. One superb cross found Raphinha in space, only for the Brazilian’s header to hit the post and deny Espart another assist.
"Xavi Espart is incredible," goalkeeper Joan Garcia said after the 2-0 victory, highlighting his defensive work.
Flick shared that surprise, and delight. "I’m very pleased with what I’m seeing, even a little surprised by how he’s playing at left-back," he said. "He’s always focused. He’s a player with great quality and, in one-on-one situations in defence, he’s top-class. I’m very happy with him. Like all players, he has room for improvement."
Against Rayo Vallecano, the pattern continued. Espart slipped into the half-space, combined quickly with Raphinha and watched the captain surge through to score in a 5-2 win. Again, the teenager had helped unlock the game from an inside channel, not the touchline.
A full-back who thinks like a midfielder
Espart’s game is rooted in his La Masia education in midfield. Reading of play, positioning, awareness – those traits made him an ideal modern full-back on the right. They now travel with him to the left.
He relishes contact. Wingers don’t get room to breathe; he steps into their path, leans into duels, wins the ball and looks forward immediately.
He is not the classic overlapping full-back who lives on the chalk. He prefers to combine in tight spaces, drift into the inside lane, or carry the ball towards the edge of the box before releasing a teammate.
"I can be a different kind of full-back, one who can link up with teammates centrally instead of being a wing-back," he explained.
From both midfield and full-back, his passing has bite. He plays quickly, keeps the tempo high, and rarely dwells.
The positional journey tells its own story: midfielder to right-back, then straight into left-back at the start of a title defence. Few 19-year-olds carry that tactical load so lightly.
"You've all seen it: he's spectacular with the ball, he can play at full-back and in midfield... and he always does it perfectly," Pau Cubarsi told Marca.
Flick’s Lahm project
The comparisons were always going to come. A technically gifted, undersized full-back who can step into midfield, coached by Hansi Flick? The echoes of Philipp Lahm are obvious.
"When I see Xavi play, I really like his confidence on the ball," Flick said in the summer. "He reminds me of Philipp Lahm, as he can play as a No. 6 or a 2. I like to see him with and without the ball."
Lahm’s career arc is the template. He started at left-back, flourished on the right at Bayern Munich, then under Pep Guardiola shifted into midfield and became the metronome of a team that dominated Europe. Joachim Low, with Flick as his assistant, used Lahm in that central role for much of Germany’s 2014 World Cup triumph.
Espart is nowhere near that level yet, but the blueprint is clear. Flick sees a utility man with elite potential: close control in tight spaces, the vision to dictate play, and the tactical intelligence to move across the pitch without losing clarity.
The early signs suggest he is right.
Espart has played every minute of Barcelona’s first four league games, but Flick has been careful. The teenager stayed on the bench for the Champions League win over Feyenoord, a deliberate pause to protect him from burnout in his first full season at the top.
He has already overtaken Balde in the left-back hierarchy, yet midweek showed Flick still trusts Cancelo to step in when rotation demands it. The competition is real, and Espart knows it.
"For now, I'm happy, but football is a day-by-day thing, and I'll keep giving 100% to stay here," he said last month. "It's very difficult to make it here, but what's really tough is staying here because of the high standards set by these players.
"At the end of the day, this is Barca, the best team in the world, and the demands are there every single day.
"You can never let your guard down."
Left-back, right-back, or back in the middle – wherever he lands, Espart offers Flick something priceless: a player who can change position without changing the team’s identity. For a club obsessed with control and versatility, the question now is not whether he belongs.
It is how far they dare to build around him.
