Future Superstart?

During a friendly match, played Thursday, Croatia beat Cyprus 2-0. One of the stars of the game was Croatian 18-year-old midfielder Alen Halilovic, with impressive individual skills. This was no surprise, anyone who watched past games, can testify this flashes of greatness, his individual burst of power breaking the opponent's defense.

Two years ago, he was the youngest debutant for Dinamo Zagreb and the youngest goalscorer in the history of the club, a record broken since then by Fran Brodic who left the team this summer to play with Brugge in Belgium.

In July this year, Halilovic was transferred to Barcelona, and with no place in the Croatian World Cup squad, he arrived early and started his process of adaptation tho the Barça game philosophy of tiki-taka.

Expecting this season to play in the Barcelona B squad, he made into Barcelona's Champions League squad and he could play some minutes in Europe if the qualify early from the group stage. Nothing new for the player who already had experience in Champions League in his old team Dinamo Zagreb.

Halilovic story has some resemblance to that of Bojan Krkic, former La Masia soccer academy product, who started playing for the Barcelona's first team when he was 17-years-old, younger than the former's youngest Barcelona player Lionel Messi.

Both, Halilovic and Krkic, are sons of former professional footballers who gave them full support. Krkic's father worked as scout for Barcelona and Halilovic's father worked in La Masia as a coach, one of the most productive in Europe.

But Krkic, seen as a possible successor for Lionel Messi set the bar too high for him, even with an impressive 104 La Liga appearances and scoring a total of 26 goals, he hasn't lived up to the hype. Now he is playing for Stroke City, a mediocre Premier League.

Halilovic style is quite different, he is more direct even a bit selfish in some situations, but he is starting to learn the tiki-taka Barcelona's game philosophy.

With an amazing first touch, passing and technical skills, joining Barcelona was the best thing as they will make them aware of the tactical aspects of his game and teach him the best way to use his abilities.

He can become a new superstar, or we could see him playing for the Stoke on a rainy Tuesday some years in the future.