You may have never seen them before, but when they touch the ball they catch your eye within an instant. Then they never give it back. There are two players that have done that to me, one in 2008 and the other in 2011, both in youth national team tournaments. They are two very different players, but they have some common factors. They were both born in 1991, they were raised at La Masia and they both have names that start with the letter T. Over two posts I will try to explain how Thiago Alcántara and Cristian Tello put me under their spell and how sure I am that these two won’t disappoint in the near and distant future. In part two we’ll focus on Cristian Tello. Part 1 about Thiago can be found here.

Cristian Tello 

The first time I saw Tello live

Not too long ago I had another moment, much like the one I had with Thiago while watching the U-17 European Championship in 2008. It was the U-20 World Cup in 2011 and this time the player that caught my eye was a winger. He wasn’t as outstanding as Thiago had been for me in 2008, but there were something special about him every time he got the ball. I didn’t have to look up his name as the commentator was as vocal as me every time this winger got the ball, announcing “Tello, Tello, Tello”. And although I had far better knowledge of Barça’s youngsters by this point, Tello was someone I hadn’t heard enough about to remember.

“What team is this kid from?“, I recall thinking as I watched the game. He owned his flank and when he got the ball, he moved it quickly, and you wouldn’t envy those with the job of trying to stop him. I wasn’t able to watch many of the games from the tournament. But from the few I watched, what I remember most is Tello. But who was he, who was that fast technical player? Once again the UEFA website gave an answer that filled me with joy, Cristian Tello was a player from FC Barcelona. I recalled hearing his name before, but not much more than that.

Tello is in many many ways a different player from Thiago, but he did catch my eye in the same way as his peer had done some years earlier. During this season I have watched the B team whenever I’ve had the time and a good steam. Sadly it hasn’t been as many times as I would have liked. But Cristian Tello has impressed me, just as Thiago had and still does. Tello has been better and better in every game.

A while back I wrote an article about the Generation of 1991, the new magical generation that Barça has produced. This group includes both Tello and Thiago, together with players like Cuenca, Planas, Riverola, Bartra, and Montoya who have played together since they were 10-14 years old. When it came to Tello, unlike many of the others, I didn’t write down the date of his first team debut. The reason, he hadn’t made his debut yet. That was three months ago. In November, the first leg of the Copa del Rey fixture against L’Hospitalet took place. Cristian Tello made his debut, playing the full 90 minutes, and he didn’t disappoint. In December, it was time for the second leg and Guardiola put Tello in the squad again, and even though he would start this match on the bench, he would impress even more.

In the 39th minute Tello entered the pitch. Only three minutes later, in the 42nd minute, he scored a cracker of a goal. As he got the ball at the half line, Tello advanced towards the goal and scored. He did it with such ease that it was hard to remember that this was his first ever game at Camp Nou. And more was to come as in the 62nd minute he scored an even more impressive goal. Once again he looked like a veteran goalscorer on the pitch, as he curled the ball past the defender and the goalkeeper like it was nothing. In the 79th minute, Tello rounded off the night by assisting Isaac Cuenca for the 9th goal of the evening. I literally sat with an open mouth, I had just witnessed a 20 year old kid in his Camp Nou debut not only scoring two cracking goals and making a fabulous assist, but also ruling the entire show in a game that ended in a 9-0 win.

Against Hospitalet

The more I watched him, the more he grew on me, becoming more and more a huge personal favourite among the B team players. The flow in his game, the speed, the technique, the will. In December of 2011, I went to the Miniestadi to watch Barça B play Almeria. It wasn’t the first time I had seen Tello play live, I actually got to see him for a few minutes in the second half of the game against Albacete where I met Thiago in the stands. But it was in this game against Almeria that I got to see Tello take over. There were no question about it, the boy with the number 7 was the best one on the field. He seemed unstoppable. I recall Tello dribbling past Henok Goitom, among others, on his way towards the goal. The Swede looked dejected, he couldn’t cope with this young kid. Afterwards, when I talked with Henok in the mixed zone, he said that the Barça kids wouldn’t stop running and the most annoying part was that they were so good with the ball and always wanted it. His words could have easily described Cristian Tello alone. The game ended in a 3-3 draw, with Tello being behind each of Barça’s goals. Three great solo runs that ended with shots on goal. Two were saved by the keeper but kicked in by Soriano and Riverola on the rebounds, while one went straight in. That cold evening at the Miniestadi, Cristian Tello ruled the pitch, and it’s something I will never forget.

Ever since that game against L’Hospitalet at Camp Nou and the one against Almeria at the Miniestadi, I’ve been literally screaming for Guardiola to give Tello not only his League debut but also the full 90 minutes on the pitch. Finally, against Villarreal last weekend, his League debut arrived. With 20 minutes left of the game Cristian Tello entered the pitch, seconds later the clearest chances of the whole games occurred, thanks to the young winger. The Villarreal players couldn’t cope with him and instead they would grab his shirt and throw the boy aside in their attempts to get the ball. There was also this one brilliant move down the left flank where he ended up providing Cesc Fàbregas with the game’s clearest chance. All created by the debutante. With some of the best players in the world on the pitch, Tello, who only played 20 minutes, was named by our readers here at totalBarça as Man of the Match.

The following game against Valencia, there were nothing I wanted more than for Tello to start. In the end he only got 3 minutes. Too little time to create danger? No, not for Tello, as he directly went down his flank to make the Valencia defenders dizzy, with the ball finally going out for a corner. A corner that nearly ended up in the goal through Leo, but the Argentinian failed to find the net.

And finally, last Saturday in the game against Real Sociedad in La Liga, he was in the starting eleven. It was time to see what he could do against a La Liga opponent during 90 minutes. After 8 minutes, it was already clear. Tello gave the first team something they had been missing during the last few games, someone who clearly sees the goal and doesn’t miss. 1-0. As the game continued, there was one thing that never changed: when no. 37 on the flank got the ball, danger occurred. In the second half he would score once more, but contact on the goal line from an offside Dani Alvés denied the goal. But it didn’t bother Tello and he just kept on until the end of the game, which eventually finished in a 2-1 win. Once again you, our readers, voted Cristian Tello as Man of the Match.

Against Real Sociedad

And if we don’t count the Valencia game where he only played 3 minutes, Cristian Tello has now featured in 4 first team games, scored 3 allowed goals, had 1 disallowed, and made one assist. And 3 months ago he hadn’t even made his debut!

Thiago and Tello both caught my eye once and they haven’t released it since.