By 阿拉爱上海Boca youth Argentine midfield Alain barrela is about to join Porto. This high-profile midfield star in Argentina’s domestic league regards Portugal Chao as his first stop in Europe. There have been many media speculations, barrela may follow the footsteps of Enzo Fernández after the 1-2 season and join a higher platform at a high price.
At present, there are many new stars in the Argentine league, including Boca youth forward Valentin Balco, independence forward San Diego Hidalgo, and Southfield midfield pelone, barrela, a defensive midfield, became the first to land in Europe.
Like many Argentine compatriots, Alain Barrera’s football career began with street football in Ellis, Buenos Aires. He once played for a local club affiliated to Barcelona in Buenos Aires. However, barrera soon won the favor of Boca youth, one of Argentina’s most famous giants, which was a rare opportunity in his football career.
Boca youth gathered the most talented players in Argentina. Playing here means you have to face the cruelest competition, but if you can stand out in the competition of Boca youth, then you will be very close to the olive branch of the national team and European football-in order to realize your dream, Alan barrela is training hard.
After seven years of youth training in Boca, barrela was finally called up to the first team training by Gustav Alfaro, the head coach of Boca first team. At the same time, Boca youth also provided barrela with the first professional contract.
After the start of the 2020 season, Boca youth appointed Miguel Angel Russo as the new coach of the team. It was under Russo that barrela began to gradually become a regular customer of Boca youth first team. On December 20, 202020, barrela made his debut as the first team in the League Cup against the independence team for the first time.
In the following season, barrela played a more important role in the team. He played 27 appearances for Boca youth first team, although his personal performance was good, but Boca youth only won the fourth place in the league.
The poor performance in 2021 made Boca youth determined to make a comeback after a season. This time, a more mature barrela helped them achieve this. The defensive midfield played 47 games, scored 1 goal and assisted twice to help Boca win again in the Argentine league.
Continuous and stable output made barrela win the attention of South American and European football circles. As a new midfield talent bred by Argentine football soil, barrela inherited the characteristics of Argentine players attaching importance to passing and catching the ball and having good mental quality, on the other hand, he is also a more modern midfield player.
Although the experience reminds people of Enzo Fernández, Barreira’s style of play focuses more on defense. In Argentina, he was once compared to new Mars Cerano, at the national team level, he is considered as the ideal substitute of Guido Rodriguez. Barrela’s greatest contribution is in terms of defense. According to statistics, barrela is the most outstanding player in the internal anti-pressure and interception of Boca youth team. On average every 90 minutes, barrela can finish two shovels, ranking among the top 5% of the players in the Argentina league. Barrela is also a difficult player to overcome in one-on-one, this young man can stop the drivers’ 1.58 times every 90 minutes on average, ranking in the top 6%. In addition, he also showed good strength in terms of interception and dribbling.
However, barrela’s game style also brought him some trouble. In only 2023 seasons, barrela had 10 yellow cards, which were the players who ate the most yellow cards in the Argentine league. In addition, he also had a record of 26 fouls, some of which were close to goal also brought risks to the team.
In general, Alan barrela is a real modern No. 6 player, who gathers the focus, aggressiveness, keen and concise on the defensive side. He likes to end his opponent’s attack with clean and neat actions, and then find his teammates with a long and accurate pass. This is his favorite mode of play: direct, fast and accurate. In the game of Boca youth, we can strongly feel the role of barrela’s midfield barrier. He always maintains a high degree of concentration and aims at every opportunity that can block the opponent’s attack, use aggressive actions to crush the opponent’s attack. In addition, barrela also has good skills in controlling the ball in the face of forced bag clip, he likes to master the ball right after breaking the ball instead of simply destroying the opponent’s attack.
This efficient and fierce way of playing football is considered to be the biggest advantage of barrela, which also distinguishes him from other talented young players in Argentina. At the age of 22, barrela already had quite rich experience in competition, so it is generally believed that barrela is definitely not a lottery ticket for Porto, it is a strong support from a very mature midfield combat capability.
Barrera does have his weakness. The most prominent thing is his recklessness in the tackle, but he can correct it through more matches. With his talent, he can completely overcome this problem in 1-2 years.
In recent months, many clubs have discussed barrela’s transfer with Boca, including Liverpool, Newcastle and other clubs have also shown interest in barrela, but Porto finally won the battle, it is reported that Porto will complete the transfer of barrela with a surcharge of 11 million euros.
For Barrera, Porto is the best environment to upgrade his ability to a new height, and for Porto, it is also a good and cheap offer. According to the progress speed of barrela in recent years, Porto is expected to sell him at a higher price, while Argentina regards Alain barrela as the best partner of Enzo, his fierce defense and all-round football style are expected to make Enzo free up more energy to attack.
(Supine support/Santiago-Wang)