USA Youth National Team goalkeeper Diego Cochin has agreed to a new long-term contract with Barcelona that will keep him at the club until 2028.
The Catalan club said on Friday that the agreement will be officially signed when Cochin turns 18 on March 19.
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Under the agreement, Cochin will be promoted from the Under-19 team to Barcelona Athletic, which plays in the third tier of Spanish football, where he will wear the number 24 shirt.
However, he has been training and traveling with the first team on a regular basis since Marc-Andre ter Stegen injured his back in November.
He has made the bench for Xavi Hernandez on 13 occasions this season and had the chance to make his first-team debut in December, playing 29 minutes in the friendly defeat to Liga MX Club América in Dallas.
Cochin previously signed his first professional contract in 2022, penning a three-year deal at the age of 16 after initially joining the club. No Masia Academy in 2019.
Born in Miami to Venezuelan and Peruvian parents, he is also eligible to play for Spain, the country he has lived in since 2018.
He had only represented the United States at the youth level, but the director of the Spanish youth teams, Francis Hernandez, made a play to convince him to act. La Roja.
in Interview with Marca Last month, Hernandez confirmed that he had informed Cochin about the possibility of choosing Spain over the United States, Venezuela and Peru.
Cochin is one of two young Americans currently at Barcelona. The other is Adrian Simon Gill, who turned 18 last month.
Gill, a midfielder and US youth international, has missed most of this season due to injury. He has a contract until 2025.
Cochin and Gil aim to become the third and fourth American to play for Barcelona’s first team, following in the footsteps of Konrad de la Fuente and Sergiño Dest.
De La Fuente played three matches for the club after arriving No Masia Before leaving in 2021, while Dest, now on loan at PSV Eindhoven, has played 68 games since signing from Ajax for €20m in 2020.
