It has been a long time since Barça had a sustainable national base. Far behind is the era of the legendary Nacho Solozabal (17 seasons) or the most recent seasons of Víctor Sada (nine in two seasons) or the short-lived season of Ricky Rubio (2009-11 and the last months of the previous year).
In this sense, Madrid native Juan Núñez’s current bet may have an expiration date if it continues to develop, the NBA and the Spurs of veteran Popovich will hold its rights. In other words, if he does very well he leaves and if he doesn’t improve, he stays. Bad business.
Núñez was born on June 4, 2004 and Two months and five days later, former Azulgrana Rafa Villar came into the worldwho matured a lot on loan at Hiopos Lleida in the last two seasons and made his debut in the Endesa League with an excellent grade, now no longer has ties to Barça.
Catalan is a very complete player who shines in the direction of the game and in defense. In addition, he has a good outside shot and knows how to make a difference off the dribble. In fact, in August 2022 he scored 20 points in the final of the U18 European Championship which ended in a 61-68 victory over Türkiye.
Last summer, Villar emulates the emblematic ‘Golden Juniors’ (Pau Gasol, Juan Carlos Navarro, Raúl López, Felipe Reyes and company) by contributing to the Spanish gold in the World Cup with 17 points in the hard-fought victory in the final against France by Melvin Ajinca (already in ASVEL) in 73-69.
Villar shined in the lower categories of the national team / EFE
The Barcelonan He left Barça last summer due to the impossibility of keeping multiple loans and so many chips to pay. Hiopos Lleida and its coach Gerard Find trusted a key player for promotion from LEB Oro despite his youth and last week he was the key to the first victory of the Terra Ferma team.
Almost three years after his debut at the age of 17 with the first team of Barça under Jasikevicius against Zalgiris and played three games in the Endesa League before leaving Lleida in December 2022, Villar completed his best game last Sunday in the victory of Lleida against BAXI Manresa (83-81).
Search kept the Catalan point guard on the court for 23 minutes, where he scored 10 points Despite going 0/3 on triples (2/2 on two-pointers and 6/6 on free throws), he grabbed two defensive rebounds, dished out five basket passes and forced five fouls for a +12 rating despite losing four balls.
Before that, they finished with four points against Casademont Zaragoza, went to eight against Barça and went up to nine against Unicaja. In total, 31 points (7.8 average), 2.5 assists and +8.8. In other words, better numbers than Barça’s Juan Núñez with an average of 4.5 points, 2.8 assists and a +5.5 rating with an excellent +9.5 in +/-. And the man from Madrid has the crack details.
He is not on loan and all his rights are held by Hiopos Lleidaa club where he signed until 2026. In any case, if he continues this trend one day he can wear the Blaugrana again to make his dream come true.