Tag: Diego Kochen

U.S. U-17 goalkeeper Diego Kochen makes Barcelona Champions League squad

A USYNT player to watch made Barça’s Champions League roster

U.S. youth national team goalkeeper Diego Kochen is one to watch.

Just ask Barcelona, who included the 17-year-old in its 27-player squad for the upcoming Champions League group stage.

The Miami native, who is a dual national eligible for the U.S. and Peru, is one of eight players who are currently playing for either Barcelona’s “B” team Barça Atlètic or the club’s U-19 squad.

Kochen has been in the mix for the first team this season. Kochen has been in uniform for each of Barça’s last three league matches, though due to availability and registration issues, he has not been the only back-up goalkeeper on the bench for any of those matches.

That said, with Barcelona finally able to register Iñaki Peña — Marc-André ter Stegen’s projected back-up this season — Kochen still dressed for Sunday’s 2-1 win at Osasuna. That builds on a good end to the season for Kochen, who trained with Barcelona’s first team last May.

Barça still pulling levers is good news for Kochen

Despite being home to La Masia, long lauded as one of world soccer’s most productive academies, Barcelona is having to get creative to put together its Champions League squad.

UEFA allows Champions League participants to include up to 25 players on “List A,” which is what most people would think of as the team’s actual roster for the tournament. Of that group, eight must meet requirements to be listed as “locally trained,” of whom four must have spent at least three seasons between the ages of 15-21 at the club.

Barça’s problem is that they can’t meet that requirement, and UEFA’s punishment is to reduce the number of spots a team has on List A as a result. As such, Barcelona submitted a List A with just 19 players, with the rest on List B.

Here is the full description from UEFA on what makes a player eligible to be included on a squad list as part of List B:

A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 2002 and since his 15th birthday has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year. Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.

Kochen, who made his move to Barcelona’s youth system in July 2019, is thus eligible for inclusion.

All of which is to say that while Barça still has a long way to go to get its house in working order financially, and that its apparent win-now mentality has restricted openings for youth players, Kochen is still managing to find a way to get reps with the first team in training, and be in uniform on matchdays.

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USMNT players in UEFA Champions League 2023-24

11 U.S. players are in the world’s biggest club competition

There was once a time where a U.S. men’s national team player being on a Champions League squad list — even if they might have no shot at playing in any actual games — was a very big deal.

It’s safe to say those days are gone, with no fewer than 11 U.S. players on the books for clubs that qualified for this year’s competition.

Sure, in some cases the player in question is probably a major longshot to even dress on gameday, but between Christian Pulisic’s sublime start to life at AC Milan and a USMNT trio at PSV, USMNT fans are likely going to be watching games on multiple screens just to keep up.

Here is the complete list of U.S. men’s players to make it to this year’s Champions League proper:

The Americans Abroad Five: A fresh start for Brenden Aaronson

There are some early signs of positivity in Aaronson’s loan at Union Berlin

Last season was rough on Brenden Aaronson.

After a promising start with Leeds, the U.S. national team attacker faded badly down the stretch en route to an ugly outcome for both player and team.

For Aaronson? Just one goal and three assists in more than 2,300 league minutes. For Leeds? Relegation.

Though a season in the Championship could have had its benefits for the 22-year-old, the chance to join a Bundesliga side in the Champions League was clearly too good to pass up.

It’s obviously way too soon to judge Aaronson’s loan with Union Berlin, but there are at least some early signs of positivity. Let’s look at Aaronson’s Bundesliga debut to kick off the Five this week.

U.S. U-17 goalkeeper Diego Kochen trains with Barcelona first team

The shot-stopper reached the milestone just two months after turning 17

Diego Kochen’s impressive rise at Barcelona is showing no sign of slowing down.

The U.S. U-17 star trained with the Liga club’s senior team for the first time this week, another milestone for one of American soccer’s best goalkeeping prospects.

Kochen, who only turned 17 in March, joined Barcelona in 2019 and has been steadily climbing the ranks in the club’s La Masia academy. He currently plays for Barcelona’s Juvenil B team, part of the U-19 setup.

The goalkeeper has occasionally trained with reserve team Barcelona B before this week’s milestone, which he acknowledged with an understated post on Instagram that simply said: “Grateful for this experience.”

Video from the training session would later emerge showing Kochen beginning a passing move that concluded with Robert Lewandowski putting the ball in the back of the net.

The goalkeeper is one of two 17-year-old Americans in Barcelona’s youth ranks, with his fellow U.S. U-17 international Adrian Gill featuring as a midfielder in La Masia.

Kochen was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Soccer Young Male Player of the Year, having played in five of the U.S. U-17 side’s eight games on the year.

Despite representing the U.S. at the youth international level, the Miami-born goalkeeper is still eligible for Venezuela through his father and Peru through his mother.

Media in Peru also took notice of Kochen’s first-team training session, with Líbero saying the teenager “rubbed shoulders with Lewandowski!”

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