Can Pedri get back to his best for Barcelona?

Looking ahead to the future of Barcelona, which player is most likely to become the face of the club?

Maybe there doesn’t have to be just one.

At Real Madrid, since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, and even Karim Benzema, the club no longer has that one superstar that they’ve built the team around.

Vinicius Junior was supposed to be the man. And he did have a prolific season. If anyone, at least to start the season, it looked like Jude Bellingham would be the protagonist. Tactically, he was a focal point, but he never quite stole the show when it was all said and done.

Now, without a doubt, their anti-hero has arrived in Kylian Mbappe.

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And that raises questions of how Barcelona will match his footballing prowess.

For years, bright new faces have come long for Barcelona, seemingly out of no where.

First, it was Ansu Fati. He even inherited the number ten from Messi. Perhaps that was too much too soon.

And then came Pedri, who in his debut season, became a global phenomenon.

Certainly the best thing to come out of Ronald Koeman’s tenure, Pedri played more minutes than any other Barcelona player. Then he went on to do the same thing for the Spanish national team over the summer at Euro 2020 and the Olympics. No rest for such a young, and able bodied prodigy.

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No one saved Pedri from himself. And he paid the price.

He did feature for Spain at the World Cup in 2022, but didn’t play from them again, until now, because of an unending injury history.

But Pedri is back baby.

He scored twice against Northern Ireland in a warm up for the big tournament, and looks poised to be the leader that Spain will need in order to make a big run.

When you look at the Spanish roster, your reaction may very well be, meh.

Above average. Nice technical players. But like Barcelona itself, nothing that will strike fear into the hearts of opponents.

Unless the Pedri of old makes a comeback.

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And frankly, if he’s joined by a confident and effective Lamine Yamal, maybe just maybe, Spain can be a contender.

And if that goes well, there will be reason for excitement for Hansi Flick and company.

Of all the uncertainties and challenges that Flick will face, I have to imagine one of the big reasons he wanted to come to Barcelona in the first place was to work with, develop, have success with the corps of young, talented players.

We all love Gavi and Fermin Lopez. We all know what Frenkie de Jong and Ilkay Gundogan are capable of.

But the the one with the biggest ceiling is Pedri. He is the number ten. The man with the magic feet. Cut from the Barcelona cloth, destined to be the next midfield legend.

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He has the talent. He has the desire.

But will Pedri’s body allow him to meet or surpass the great expectations we all have for him?

No doubt, Barcelona will be eagerly looking to build a staff, and get the right practices into place, to do a much better job of preventing injuries, and getting players with an injury record back to full strength.

In addition to Pedri, there will be big questions asked of Gavi and Alejandro Balde when they make their returns.

But for me, this is the summer of Pedri.

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I’ll be watching to see what Lamine and Fermin can do. But I’ll be watching even more closely to see if Pedri is getting back to his best.

The answer to that question will be a preview of what Barcelona can accomplish in the season ahead.