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FC Barcelona

Barcelona youth cites LeBron James as greatest athlete

Konrad De La Fuente, a Barcelona B team player, talked about his idols and mentioned the NBA star over his team's iconic striker Lionel Messi.

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Barcelona youth cites LeBron James as greatest athlete
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Despite moving to Barcelona seven years ago from the United States, Konrad De La Fuente doesn't forget his homeland, and it shows as his idol is LeBron James instead of Lionel Messi.

The U20 US men's national team player was born in Miami but moved to Spain, and with a couple of years in Barcelona, La Masia took him and has been training with the Blaugrana since then.

De La Fuente talked to ESPN where he mentioned that moving to Barcelona was a great opportunity for him and with the scouts following him he just needed to do one thing "It was a matter of me playing well, and they saw me, I'm happy they did it."

The American youngster mentioned Ronaldinho as one of his idols when he was a child, but his other favorite athlete is NBA superstar LeBron James, which De La Fuente prefers over Barça icon, Lionel Messi, the reason, well, LeBron's mentality and quality.

"Although I am a football player, LeBron is my idol. Because of how much he works; he keeps in shape, his playing mentality, the way he behaves on the court, it's not always about him, it's about making the team better - That's the right mentality."

Poland 2019 participation

At 19-years-old the American player is living a great moment in his career, he's participating at the U20 World Cup with the USMNT and could leave Barcelona B team to move into Barça's reserves permanently.

In the US two games so far, Konrad has been a starter and is expected for the Barcelona player to start in the last meeting of the Bars and Stripes group stage. A stage where the USMNT has a loss and a win.