An ex-Real Madrid and Barcelona star has pulled back the curtain on the rise in prominence of certain La Masia alumni within Xavi Hernandez's squad right now, as the Blaugrana prepare to face their eternal rivals in ElClasico.
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By the end of his time with River Plate in 2001, Javier Saviola was touted as football's new golden boy as the world rushed to usher in a successor to Diego Maradona's throne. He was named South American Footballer of the Year in 1999 and won both the Golden Shoe and the Golden Ball awards in the 2001 FIFA U20 World Cup. It was these performances that ultimately led Barca to spend some of that Luis Figo money on this prodigious young talent, and so Saviola signed with the Catalan giants in 2001.
