Midfielder Marc Casadó led an exodus of academy players on Tuesday as Barcelona trimmed their first team squad following six summer signings, including the deadline day arrival of Gabriel Jesus.
Casadó joined LaLiga side Deportivo A Coruña on loan until the end of the season, with Álvaro Cortés and the Fernández twins, Guille and Toni, also departing.
Defender Cortés moved to Antwerp, Toni Fernández signed for Venezia and Guille Fernández joined Mallorca, all on permanent deals.
The quartet followed La Masia graduates Ansu Fati (Monaco), Héctor Fort (Real Sociedad), Jofre Torrents (Ajax), Diego Kochen (Lyngby) and Tommy Marqués (Braga) out the door this summer.
Casadó, 22, was the biggest departure on Tuesday. Barça had hoped to transfer him for a significant fee but, given his preference to remain in Europe, ended up agreeing to a loan to Depor.
The Spain international has made 75 first team appearances but was told to find a new club this summer with Rodri, Pedri, Marc Bernal, Gavi and Frenkie de Jong all preferred ahead of him.
Defender Cortés, 20, made his Barça debut earlier this year and was keen to fight for a place in Hansi Flick’s side but was also told his game time would be minimal.
Highly-rated forward Toni Fernández, 18, has featured twice for Flick, but the signings of attackers Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi and Jesus pushed him further down the pecking order.
Toni’s cousin, Guille, also 18, played for the first team in preseason but has dropped down to the second division with Mallorca in search of regular football.
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There was better news on Tuesday for young midfielder Brian Fariñas. The 20-year-old was officially promoted to the first team and handed the No.4 shirt.
Meanwhile, Barça completed deals for German youngsters Mirza Catovic and Mikael Baza to bolster their youth teams with an eye on developing them into future first team players.
Midfielder Catovic, 19, joins from Stuttgart, while Baza, 16, who is Bayern Munich defender Jonathan Tah‘s cousin, moved from Hamburg.
Jesus was the only first team signing on Tuesday, though, following the arrivals of Gordon, Adeyemi, Rodri, João Cancelo and Dominik Livaković.
