As a prospering young player who wants a good grounding in European football, there are two obvious choices. You either go to the principality and play for Monaco as the likes of Willem Geubbels, Pietro Pellegri and Youri Tielemans did, or you go to Borussia Dortmund who in recent years have a list as long as your arm of young players who they’ve given first team football to and then have subsequently gone on to flourish.
Mats Hummels. Marco Reus (I’m aware he got released by Dortmund in the first place), Shinji Kagawa, Christian Pulisic, Ilkay Gundogan, Robert Lewandowski, Jadon Sancho and the fantastically named Dan-Axel Zagadou have all gone to Dortmund as unproven youngsters and come out the other end as top level players.
Much in the same vein as Sancho, the player in question, Sergio Gomez, was playing in the development squad of an elite European side a couple of years ago. Gomez was another in a long list of graduates at Barcelona’s La Masia. He is the quintessential Barcelona graduate, a diminutive pacey little forward with a low centre of gravity, plenty of flair and all of the technical ability you could ever need.
His exploits on the international stage had garnered him massive attention and earmarked him as a potential star. As part of the Spain side that won the 2017 U17 European Championship, Gomez shone as a second forward, scoring 3 goals in the tournament and a penalty in the final shootout, only narrowly missing out as player of the tournament to future team mate Sancho, an interesting thought. He then went on to score 4 in the tournament at the U17 World Cup the same year, Spain would finish as runner up though and a brilliant England side dominated them 5-2 in the final, Gomez did get both goals for Spain though.
Dortmund must have some persuasive senior recruitment personnel at the club, in the last few years and for exactly the same reason (not seeing a way into their current first team), Dortmund have poached Sancho from Man City, Zagadou from PSG and Gomez from Barcelona. Gomez had made it onto the periphery of the Barcelona B squad, who play in the Spanish second tier, and actually made a couple of substitute appearances for them (only just 17 at the time). But much like Sancho, the people around him felt that his development could be furthered better by the potential first team opportunities on offer at Dortmund and so on 30th January 2018, he made the switch.
The move appeared to pay off straight away. Dortmund II who themselves play as a first team in Regionalliga West have made Sergio Diaz a regular and even made two substitute appearances for the first team before the end of his first season.
This season may have been one of slightly frustrating in terms of first team opportunities and I feel he has fell a little bit behind Sancho in terms of development but this can partially be put down to physicality which is not his fault. He has however, been excellent for Dortmund U19s in the UEFA Youth League and been a regular again for Dortmund II. Gomez has also been brilliant for the Spain U19 side, a good barometer of his potential. The only appearance he has made for the first team this season is as a substitute in the Champions League. However, with Christian Pulisic leaving at the end of the season, Gomez is in a position to flourish and with him and Sancho, Dortmund might actually see a title challenge over the line next season. Watch this space.
False 9 