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.
Aquí, Diego Kochen 🧤 iniciando la jugada para que Robert Lewandowski 🇵🇱 la finalizara. pic.twitter.com/Nzppp904Ne
— Jorge Castillo (@JCastilloRoque) May 11, 2023
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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