Among the FC Barcelona academy starlets drafted into first-team boss Hansi Flick’s squad for the Birmingham training camp starting this Monday, Ebrima Tunkara is the name on everyone’s lips. A gifted 16-year-old attacking midfielder, Tunkara’s journey began playing barefoot in his native Gambia.

Tunkara, who has already opened his senior account with a goal in the pre-season curtain-raiser against Europa (4-1), follows a path trodden by many Africans seeking the professional opportunities in Europe that remained out of reach at home.

For this La Masia jewel, the journey was sparked by his father, Abdul, who emigrated to Spain in search of a brighter future. Ebrima eventually joined him in Catalonia in 2017 at the tender age of seven.

Forged on the streets of Gambia

His introduction to European football came at Cerdanyola, a modest club in the Mataro neighbourhood where first-team sensation Lamine Yamal also cut his teeth. Yet, his education started long before he laced up boots. Much like Neymar Jr., Diego Maradona, or Zinedine Zidane, his craft was forged on the streets.

"I started playing in my village with my friends. We’d have 'pachanguitas' [kickabouts] in the street using two sticks for goals," the Spain Under-17 international told the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in a recent interview. "Life was a bit difficult. We played barefoot on the street."

Representing Cerdanyola de Mataro’s pre-benjamin side, it didn’t take long for him to turn heads. His raw quality caught the eye of Albert Puig Alcaide, then a Barcelona coach, during a youth fixture. It took just ten minutes for Puig to dial his superior at the Blaugrana academy, Marc Serra, to report that he had unearthed a special talent.

"We knew there was a player without a licence due to paperwork issues, just waiting to debut. We were told he was exceptional," Puig recalled in a conversation with 'EFE'. "Pre-benjamin matches are four ten-minute quarters; by the end of the first, I was calling Marc Serra to tell him he was a player we simply had to sign."

Tunkara officially joined Barcelona for the 2018-19 campaign, though a period of adaptation followed. He initially remained with Cerdanyola de Mataro, training locally while travelling to Barca for youth sessions on Tuesdays.

"I remember his first session at Barca. He stood completely still because it was freezing," Puig remembers. "Coming from a warm climate, he looked incredibly sluggish. The coordinators, who hadn’t seen him before, asked me: 'Are you sure about this one?' It was purely a matter of context."

Physicality meets technical elegance

Tunkara soon began to flourish at the Joan Gamper Sports City. He became renowned for a blend of physical power—allowing him to breeze past markers on driving runs—and exceptional technical poise.

While his explosive pace has occasionally seen him deployed on the wing, those tracking his development view him as a natural attacking central midfielder. A high-engine, box-to-box presence with a clinical edge, the left-footed teenager shares certain traits with Lamine Yamal, thriving in the '10' role where he can break lines and time his arrivals into the box to perfection.

"He has a profile unlike anything else at Barca," says Puig, now head of youth football at Girona. "He is destined for a professional career, and I hope it’s at Barca, because his statistics are almost unheard of in the academy."

A rapid ascent to the senior stage

Nine years after arriving in Spain, Ebrima Tunkara was handed his Barca Atletic debut last February, despite still being a cadet-level player.

In June, he shone at the Under-17 European Championship with the Spanish national team, reaching the semi-finals before falling to Italy. The Blaugrana starlet was the heartbeat of the side, registering one goal and four assists to earn the player of the tournament accolade.

Barcelona have mapped out a clear pathway for Tunkara, who is represented by Pini Zahavi—the same agent who looks after manager Hansi Flick. His first professional contract, signed at the beginning of 2026, came into effect in March, and this July marks his first pre-season with the senior squad. It is a world away from the streets of Gambia, where, less than a decade ago, he was playing barefoot.

E. Tunkara

Achievements