Pedri turns 20: He's no longer a veteran disguised as a kid
Pedro González López AKA Pedri turns 20 this 25th November 2022, during his first World Cup experience. Just two days after his masterclass against Costa Rica and two days before his next challenge versus Germany.
He’s no longer a teenager, even though his talent for football would lead you to think he’s been around since forever. Yet he’s undoubtedly got room for improvement, so just imagine what potential Pedri has. Seeing how much he’s already shown since leaving Las Palmas and joining F.C. Barcelona to compete at the highest level, one can only drool at the prospect of watching Pedri play for at least another decade, if nothing out of the ordinary happens.
At the age of 20 he can already boast about taking part in a World Cup and not just as a role player, but rather a key figure in Luis Enrique’s system. He was Spain’s best performer at the Euros and now against Costa Rica he provided another example of his astonishing maturity as a player.
During his 57 minutes on the pitch in which Spain scored 4 goals, Pedri completed 86 passes with a 97% accuracy, including 3 key passes. Most of his input took place in Costa Rica’s half of the field, being fundamental for Spain when it came to creating or pressing high to recover the ball quickly.
Just 15 minutes into the game, Jaime Carragher dared to say: “Pedri is the player of the tournament so far”, in his Twitter account. Even after watching Jude Bellingham shine for England…
Pedri is definitely living the dream and in his debut at the most prestigious international football tournament, he’s already part of a record win for Spain with that 7-0 thrashing.
But this World Cup isn’t just special for what it means to him to take part and for coinciding with his birthday. Pedri also got the chance to meet his idol Andrés Iniesta, who paid the squad a visit the day after their win. He finally got to greet in the flesh the player that he looked up to as a kid and tried to emulate after watching his videos. It surely paid off as many have even dared compare him to Iniesta.
They also share a similar humble and timid personality, which is probably why Pedri seemed way more nervous when greeting Iniesta than at his recent World Cup debut.
On his Birthday he’ll most likely spend time with his family members that travelled to Qatar, given Luis Enrique has allowed the squad a day off to disconnect before they get back to it against Germany. What a first game that’ll be for Pedri to kick off his 20 years of age!