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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