Pablo Torre was the only one of the Barça players who tried to filter a pass instead of crossing a cross in the game on February 26 in Almería. The Catalans lost their second game of the season and the Spaniard, born 19 years ago in Soto de la Marina, did not play again until Saturday, the day Barcelona Atlètic won 1-2 in Sabadell. “It gives us many solutions,” said Rafa Márquez, coach of the Barça subsidiary regarding Pablo Torre, substituted for exhaustion at 75 minutes, after drawing the 0-2. Although he has not completed a single game, he did not go unnoticed, but left details that impact the fans more than their Barcelona coaches.
He has played two times in 26 league games —13 minutes against Athletic and 14 in Almería—; 95 minutes spread over three Champions League matches and 105 minutes in two Cup matches. Total: 227 minutes in the first team and 245 in the subsidiary, a short time if one takes into account the packaging with which he was presented in the summer after attending to an act of the Cruyff Foundation. Son of the soccer player Esteban Torre, Pablo arrived in Barcelona as a figure of Racing, author of 10 goals and 11 assists in the season of promotion to the Second Division of the Santander team, which valued the player at five million and some variables that can reach up to 20 The footballer signed a contract until 2026 with a clause of 100 million after Xavi called him personally to join the subsidiary at the Camp Nou.
“I was surprised that someone like the Barcelona coach knew me so much,” confessed Pablo Torre. Xavi, however, has not found the moment to give more prominence to the player, whose participation has also been conditioned by the evolution of the team, which stopped playing with wingers to form with four midfielders in a square and not in a rhombus, a drawing that does not suit Pablo Torre so much. “Pablo trains well,” warned Xavi in February. “He is more of a midfielder than a midfielder like Pedri, Gavi, De Jong or Kessié; he makes the difference near the area, ”the coach finished off. It would have been better for Pablo to play at the end of the 3-4-3 diamond.
Midfielder or midfielder, the Spaniard dominates the ball with both legs, has good vision of the game and ball control, and his burst is powerful, more expressive on the pitch than in the Camp Nou locker room. Pedri’s injury seemed to favor greater interventionism by Pablo Torre in a time of commitment to the youngsters of Barça. It was not like that, but he has been a substitute for Xavi’s calls and absent from Márquez’s lists after both parties ruled out a loan -like Nico’s to Valencia- or a return to Racing. Faced with the dilemma of playing or learning, it was decided that the player would gain physique and become familiar with Barça’s football culture for a year. The question is whether he won or lost time in the Camp Nou waiting room.
Pablo Torre is patient and still hopeful of being able to play a match like Saturday’s in Elche. The absences of Pedri, De Jong and Raphinha, the FIFA virus and Barça-Madrid in the Cup on Wednesday 5 play in favor of the Cantabrian in the field of the bottom of the League. “In the long term, all of us who come to Barça want to succeed, but in the short term it is about contributing our bit,” Pablo Torre announced in his presentation. No one was more visionary than the player that day when he was invited to become the figure of Barcelona.
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