Prospect Scout Report: Konrad de la Fuente
American? Yep.
Signed to a big club? You know it...
The best name for a soccer player ever?
Barcelona’s American young gun, Konrad de la Fuente has a lot of hype around him. In this scouting report, we’re going to look at the player and see how he rates going forward.
PS. Make sure the sound is turned down, apparently you can only make YouTube soccer compilations if you use techno music in the background.
Player Profile
Name: Konrad de la Fuente
Age: 19 (Born 2001)
Position: Inside forward/winger
Club: Barcelona
Rookie Year: Played for Barcelona B in a minor Spanish division in 19/20 season.
About The Player
Konrad de la Fuente is a player some American fans may have heard of - the youngster has been in the Barcelona system since 2013, playing in their youth teams.
These days, the winger plays at Barcelona B, which is Barca’s reserve team, that plays in the third level of Spanish football. He has also been a part of Barca’s under 19 squad over the past few seasons too.
de la Fuente is a pacy right-footed winger who likes to play on the left-wing and cut inside to play the ball on his right foot. He has a great first touch that he can use to create some space to run into - and his ball-carrying/dribbling is certainly a strength of his game. It’s easily the first thing I noticed watching him play.
This is backed up when you look at his deliveries into the penalty area. As you can see, there’s a lot more dribbles (listed as “carry”) than there are crosses or passes.
These carries are a mixture of de la Fuente’s speed, touch, and determination to get forward. Or, using his pace to get onto a through-ball.
Every time he gets the ball he’s looking to attack or make a run to that area of the penalty box. Which you love to see. He can certainly be an exciting player to watch.
One thing de le Fuente does need to sort out is his shot selection though. It can be frustrating seeing him beat his man on the dribble, cut inside, and then fire away some crazy low-percentage shot from outside the box. Check out his shot chart from last season - as you can see, there aren’t a lot of efficient shots there.
As you can see there most of his shots come from the left of the top of the 18-yard box. To his credit, de la Fuente has scored from that area, but from the matches I saw, at least two of those goals were from a through ball, which is completely a different attacking situation as there’s usually less defenders in the way.
Most of the shots though were form de la Fuente cutting back into the box and firing a quick shot, usually when there’s a better passing option open.
If you’re a defender or goalkeeper, you’d be pretty happy seeing shots come from that area all game.
And those shots from well outside… the less said about those the better, but there’s got to be a better option than shooting from there. That’s a waste.
I’m not entirely worried about this trait of de la Feunte’s game at his young age, and you shouldn’t be either… but it is certainly something he’d need to sort out sooner rather than later - the top leagues are full of quick wingers with poor decision making in the final third.
They’re dangerous, but they have a ceiling. And they usually don’t play for Barcelona.
The thing is, when de la Fuente looks to cut back for crosses, he can create chances for his teammates. Hopefully, with some more experience against better opposition, he can hone that side of his game in a little bit.
What’s Next for Konrad de le Fuente
For de la Fuente, the next frontier is two-fold:
Getting more match experience at Barcelona B
Seeing if he can get a look in for the senior team
He was a part of a 26-man squad that went to Lisbon for the end of the Champions League last season, and has been training with the first team during pre-season. So, hopefully Ronald Koeman sees something in the American gets him on the first team squad.
Even if first-team football at Barca doesn’t happen, de la Fuente will benefit from playing more games for Barcelona B, which is a more physical league than playing for the under 19 team.
He recently signed a new contract too, so it’s positive that he does have some future at the club.
Perhaps Barca might look to loan him out to another side in Spain to get some first team action, but at this stage that isn’t rumored.
Watch this space…
Konrad de la Fuente for Card Collectors
When it comes to Konrad de la Fuente, there’s still so much that needs to happen for him to be a viable option card or sticker-wise.
Most of his games have been at the Under 19 level, with only a few at Barcelona B, so the sample size is quite small on him
To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any de la Fuente stickers, and there certainly aren’t any cards.
He’ll need first team experience for that to happen. Either at Barca or on loan (like we said earlier, he just signed a new contract, so he isn’t going anywhere permanently).
However, de la Fuente is certainly one to watch out for.
If - and that’s a big ‘if’ - he can get some decent first team football at Barcelona this season, there will be a lot of eyes on him. No American has played for Barca’s first team before, so being the first would be a huge deal.
Also, he probably won’t play for Barca unless he irons out those kinks to his game we mentioned earlier, so if he’s playing semi-regularly for Barca, it’ll mean he has improved as a player.
Having a new manager in Koeman works well too, I don’t know how Koeman will do as Barca boss, but a new coach can open up some opportunities for players who weren’t used before. Especially seeing a big problem about Barca over the last few years has been that academy guys aren’t getting as much game time as they used to. That narrative could work in de la Fuente’s favor this season.
There’s also a mini fire-sale happening at Barca, so spots should open up for him.
He’s certainly one that I’m going to keep an eye on this coming season. Especially if a card of his is released this season.
However, if you’re looking at young Barca players, Ansu Fati is still the gold standard (find Fati cards on eBay).