Few have seen their stock rise at La Masia this season as much as Juvenil B’s Raúl Moro. The mercurial attacker has been an important addition to Franc Artiga’s side, a team that lost their two most essential attacking options in Roberto Navarro and Pablo Moreno, moving last offseason to Monaco and Juventus respectively. While these talents won’t be forgotten, Moro is making sure that Juvenil B don’t fall by the wayside.
Born December 5, 2002 in Abrera, Spain, a town sitting to the northwest of Barcelona and to the east of Lleida, Raúl Moro Prescoli got his start at the age of four with local club Promesas del Abrera. While he was approached by both Barcelona and Espanyol after two seasons at the Prebenjamín level, Moro decided instead to continue his career at Igualada.
He regularly played with older children and started to groom his skill to match his incredible quickness. After scoring 28 goals in the second half of his sixth season at Igualada, he was noticed by Gimnástic de Manresa and moved to his third youth club in Catalonia. It was one season at Gimnástic before he moved to his fourth Catalan club, this time answering the calls from Espanyol.
While he was always on Barcelona’s radar, they were reminded of him up close and personal in the Catalan derbies, and both Artiga and Xavi Franquesa knew he would be a good signing for the club. Some of the credit for Moro’s recruitment should be given to Juvenil A centre-back José Martínez, a good friend of the young attacker. Moro made the jump with fellow Espanyol youth Brian Peña to join up with the depleted Juvenil B side. He has bagged a handful of goals this season with a hat-trick against Badalona in January to earn a call-up to the youth national team.
Alongside his compatriot Martínez and Juvenil B teammate Álex Rico, Moro has most recently been starring for the Spain U-17s at the Algarve Tournament. The right winger came off the bench against the Netherlands but got the start against Germany and scored the only goal in a 1-0 win. In the final game of the competition, he once again came off the bench to score the team’s only goal, this time a 2-1 loss to Portugal. It may not be the most prestigious tournament, but it was surely a good showing for a player that just signed his first professional contract in December of 2018.
