Where are they now? Barcelona’s 18 wonderkids on Football Manager 2015
Barcelona were about to embark on one of their best-ever seasons when Football Manager 2015 was released – but how have their numerous wonderkids in the game fared in the decade since?
Spearheaded by the strike trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, Barca won their second continental treble and looked pretty much unstoppable on route to doing so. All this and having some promising young players in their ranks.
Using FM Scout, we have found Barca’s 18 wonderkids from Football Manager 2015 and have checked out what they are each up to these days.
Fabrice Ondoa
Cousin of Manchester United’s Andre Onana, Ondoa missed the semi-final but made seven saves in the final on the way to keeping a vitally important clean sheet as Barcelona won 3-0.
He never made a first-team appearance, however, and left in 2016, dropping down the Spanish divisions for regular game time before eventually finding top-flight football once again in Belgium with KV Oostende in 2018.
After floating around Europe, he’s currently found a home in Latvia with Riga-based club RFS, having been capped 51 times for Cameroon at the age of 28. Still plenty of time to add to that tally.
Xavi Quintilla
Representing both Barcelona and the Spanish national team at youth level, Quintilla was promoted to Barcelona B after the triumph but struggled to make it stick and left for Villarreal’s B team in September 2017, after leaving Barca for nothing.
He was eventually promoted to Villarreal’s first team in 2019, but quickly lost his place and joined Norwich on loan for the 2020-21 campaign, helping them to win the Championship.
These days, Quintilla plays in Cyprus with APOEL.
Diawandou Diagne
After progressing through the prolific Aspire academy in Senegal, Diagne signed a three-year contract with Barcelona in the summer of 2014.
The defender was called up to the main squad for a Copa del Rey match against SD Huesca in December 2014, but remained unused in an 8-1 hammering and never came as close to first-team action again.
He left in 2019 and made the left-field decision to move to Indian club Odisha. Still only 30, Diagne has since played in Finland and Nepal, before joining his current club Manila Digger in the Philippines in 2024. Not bad.
Alex Grimaldo
Having been named in the Team of the Tournament as a part of Spain side that won the Under-19 Euros in 2012, Grimaldo was talked up as being a prospect capable of challenging Jordi Alba.
But the left-back only ever received opportunities for Barca B. Eventually he left in search of first-team opportunities, joining Benfica in December 2016.
He shone for Benfica before moving to Bayer Leverkusen in time for their Bundesliga triumph in 2023-24, establishing himself as one of Europe’s finest left-backs.
Marc Cucurella
Cucurella was a regular in the B Team at Barcelona, but his first-team experience amounted to one substitute appearance in the Copa del Rey.
After doing well out on loan at Getafe, he joined the club on a permanent deal in 2020. The following summer he was picked up by Brighton for a small fee, and only a year later he was sold out for a massive profit to Chelsea.
The left-back has had his struggles at Stamford Bridge over the last couple of years, although his form is gradually improving in line with Chelsea’s steady ascent up the Premier League table.
Cucurella also had one in the eye for his doubters with a series of fine performances in Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph, including getting the assist for Mikel Oyarzabal’s late match-winner in the final against England.
Sergi Samper
“To debut in the Camp Nou in the Champions League is never easy,” Luis Enrique said after handing Samper his bow in a 1-0 win over Apoel Nicosia in September 2014.
“Samper has a lot of quality and I think he played well.”
Many believed that would be the first appearance of many, but the Barcelona-born midfielder was yet another who struggled to make that transition from the reserves to the first team.
The midfielder made just one La Liga appearance for La Blaugrana and in 2019 left to join up with Andres Iniesta at Vissel Kobe. Samper spent four years in Japan, making over 100 appearances for the J League club, before moving to FC Andorra.
Still only 29, Samper now plays in Poland for Ekstraklasa club Motor Lublin.
Carles Alena
As with so many La Masia graduates, there was hope in some quarters – if not quite expectation – that Alena could grow into a great player for his boyhood club.
But he never made it beyond a fringe player in the Ernesto Valverde era and wasn’t much fancied by Ronald Koeman.
After a decent half-season loan stint with Getafe, Alena signed for the club permanently in 2021. He’s still there three years on, having notched over a hundred La Liga appearances as a solid if unspectacular midfield.
Lionel Enguene
The second of four players from Cameroon on our list, Enguene spent his time at Barcelona with the B team before moving to Turkish side Antalyaspor in 2016.
The midfielder has never played more than 30 times for any club during his career, including spells in Portugal, Kuwait and Georgia. Now 28, he plays for Valencian side Olimpic de Xativa.
Wilfrid Kaptoum
Kaptoum joined Barcelona from the Samuel Eto’o Academy as a youngster in 2008.
The midfielder went on to represent Cameroon’s Under-20s and featured regularly for Barcelona B in 2015-16, the same season in which he scored in one of his two appearances for the first team – a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Gary Neville’s Valencia (Barca had won the first leg 7-0).
Kaptoum left for Real Betis in 2018 and has since played for Almeria and MLS side New England Revolution. He returned to Spain in January and helped Las Palmas win promotion to La Liga in 2023 and spent a season in Cyprus for AEK Larnaca.
He now plays for Greek Super League club Panserraikos.
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Denis Suarez
Turning heads for his performances in Manchester City’s youth set-up, Suarez returned to Spain as a 19-year-old in 2013, originally coming up through Celta Vigo’s academy as a youngster.
He continued his development in the Barca B team at first before going out on loan to Sevilla before being sold to Villarreal and bought back after a season.
After a long wait, he finally got opportunities during the 2016-17 season, making 36 appearances in all competitions as Barcelona missed out on both the league and Champions League.
He’s since failed to make a place for himself in the team and returned to Celta in 2019. Suarez now plays for Villarreal.
Munir
All the signs pointed to Munir becoming a star at Barcelona, breaking into the first team the following season as they won the treble and scored five goals in the Copa Del Rey in 2015-16.
The striker stuttered after a bright start, though, and eventually left in 2019 after a series of loan spells. Capped once by Spain in 2014, he switched allegiance to Morocco a year later and has been capped 11 times.
Munir currently plies his trade with newly-promoted Leganes.
Gerard Deulofeu
The first signing of the Ernesto Valverde era back in the summer of 2017, two years after leaving the club, Barcelona activated a buyback clause inserted into Deulofeu’s Everton contract and he returned to the Catalan giants for just over £10million.
By January 2018, however, he’d made just 10 La Liga appearances before being shipped back to England, joining Watford on loan and eventually permanently.
The Spaniard swapped Watford for Udinese – both sides owned by the Pozzo family – and has remained in Italy ever since, but hasn’t kicked a ball since the beginning of 2023 due to a nightmare knee injury.
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Alen Halilovic
Talked up as Barcelona’s answer to Martin Odegaard because Halilovic was signed as a prodigiously talented teenager, Halilovic hasn’t quite gone on to fulfil his potential quite like Arsenal’s skipper.
The Croatian midfielder never made a La Liga appearance for Barcelona and was sold to Hamburg after two years. Stints at AC Milan, Birmingham and Reading have followed.
Halilovic is still only 28 and is currently playing for Eredivisie side Fortuna Sittard.
Adama Traore
No one could have predicted that the lightning-fast winger from Barcelona’s La Masia academy would have trod the career path he has so far.
He made his first and only La Liga appearance for Barcelona, replacing Neymar in a 4-0 win over Granada in November 2013. He was just 17 years old at the time, but never made another league appearance.
He’s since turned out for Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa and Tony Pulis’ Middlesbrough before making his name at Wolves as a baby-oiled speed demon.
Traore even returned to Barcelona for a brief loan spell in 2021-22, although the La Liga giants declined to re-sign him permanently. Traore now infuriates and delights in equal measure for Fulham.
Ayoub Abou
Abou was born in Casablanca, but moved to Barca at the age of nine and spent eight years in the La Masia system.
After leaving for Porto in 2015, the midfielder has since enjoyed a nomadic career that included two years playing for arch rivals Real Madrid in the club’s B team.
With spells in Portugal, Italy and Bulgaria, Abou clearly isn’t fazed by living in different countries and you can now find him in Armenia at Urartu.
Lee Seung-Woo
The winger, once nicknamed the “Korean Messi”, joined Barcelona after shining in the 2010 Danone Nations Cup and scored 39 goals in 29 appearances in his first season in their youth ranks.
Banned from making his senior debut until his 18th birthday due to transfer regulations, Lee turned out for the B team but moved on to join Italian club Hellas Verona in 2017.
He featured for South Korea at the 2018 World Cup but hasn’t been capped since 2019 and returned to the country three years after, signing for Suwon FC.
After another transfer this summer, Lee currently has one goal in 10 appearances in 2024-25 for Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.
Jean-Marie Dongou
Like Kaptoum, former Cameroon Under-20 international Dongou arrived as a highly-rated prospect from Samuel Eto’o’s academy back in 2008.
The forward scored 29 goals in 132 appearances for Barca B and scored on his senior debut in the Copa del Rey but only mustered a further two appearances.
Dongou subsequently spent time in the lower reaches of the Spanish football pyramid before turning out in Finland (Honka), Greece (Anagennisi Karditsa) and Japan (FC Osaka).
Still only 29, he is currently without a club.
Sandro
Best known in England – or perhaps not – as an Everton flop, Ramirez scored seven goals in 32 appearances for Barca after being promoted to the senior squad by Luis Enrique.
The forward followed that with 16 goals in 31 appearances at Malaga to earn his Premier League move only to spend the majority of his time at Goodison Park back on loan in Spain with Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Real Valladolid.
His goalscoring touch appears to have deserted him since that move to Everton, having notched just 22 goals in all competitions since the start of the 2017-18 season.
Although that tally does include three in five La Liga games for Las Palmas in 2024-25, so an unlikely comeback might just be on.