This summer, The Athletic has been running a series profiling 50 exciting players under the age of 25 — who they are, how they play, and why many of them have been attracting interest in the transfer window.

This is our final entry of the series — you can find all of the previous 49 profiles here.

Pedri, Gavi, Ansu Fati, Alejandro Balde, Lamine Yamal. Just a few of the recent crop of super-talents that have emerged at Barcelona.

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With competition for places so high, even some of the brightest stars can struggle to nail down a place in Barcelona’s first-team squad. Abde Ezzalzouli feels like the next dazzling dribbler who might fall between the cracks.

Following an impressive campaign on loan at Osasuna last season, the Moroccan has returned to Barcelona with a point to prove.

Above all, Abde is a bundle of energy – a relentless dribbler at his best with the ball at his feet and a full-back in his sights.

An enviable combination of pace and upper-body strength means Abde regularly attempts to take the direct route. Per Opta, no La Liga player completed a higher percentage of carries that included a one-v-one take-on last season, highlighting his willingness to attack whenever he has the chance.

But despite the number of carries he attempts, Abde’s ability to charge into open space still leaves him in the sweet spot of high-quantity, high-quality La Liga dribblers. Last season, he attempted an impressive seven take-ons per game while still maintaining a success rate of over 50 per cent, more than any other player to attempt over five per game.

Although prone to the odd poor decision, he generally beats his man more often than some of Europe’s most prolific dribblers.

Osasuna looked to harness Abde’s wildcard ball-carrying ability last season and tried to find him as quickly as possible on the transition, aiming to leave him isolated with his defender.

A chaotic game against Real Betis in April is a good example of how the 21-year-old was utilised, his team-mates repeatedly looking to stretch a 4-4-2 shape with passes around the midfield block, as shown below.

Following a drop of the shoulder, Abde gets past full-back Martin Montoya with a quick touch down the line, powering towards the penalty area with the ball at his feet.

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Within six seconds, the winger is bearing down on the six-yard box, attempting the cut-back to Kike Barja at the back post. The ball is intercepted but ultimately falls to Jon Moncayola at the edge of the box to score.

Not officially Abde’s assist — and he was slightly loose with the final ball — but it’s his head-down persistence that pays off.

With so much space to attack, the Betis game showed Abde at his destructive best and his agonising worst.

Aside from the run above, the winger attempted nine crosses, finding a team-mate with just one. More generally, his cross-completion rate of 16.7 per cent leaves him in the lower quartile of La Liga players to have attempted 50-plus crosses last season.

Five minutes after his first run, Abde once again leads the counter-charge, this time latching onto a clearance from Moncayola down his left-hand side.

Again, he covers most of the length of the pitch in less than 10 seconds, careering into the penalty area before standing up a looped ball to the back post.

It reaches Kike Barja but is slightly overhit, requiring an acrobatic touch to keep the ball in play and allowing a cluster of defenders to step across to block the shot.

Lightning speed to create the opening, but a slightly wayward pass to finish it off. Right now, Abde plays on the cusp of brilliance and is just a few small details away.

But at 21, in a role of creative responsibility, such performances can be forgiven. With six goals and two assists across the course of 2022-23, Abde’s perseverance is a constant headache for opposition full-backs.

On his day, the Moroccan can win games by himself. Against Elche, for example, his team sluggish in the aftermath of their extra-time win in the Copa del Rey semi-final, it was Abde’s second-half brace, including a spectacular curling second, that gave his team a vital three points.

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Without that performance, which included six shots and 10 dribbles, Osasuna would have slipped out of the UEFA Conference League places.

Similarly, in an earlier clash with Rayo Vallecano in September 2022, Abde rescued another victory from the jaws of a draw with an incisive run, breezing past five players and into the penalty area, before laying the ball on a plate for Ruben Garcia to tap home.

Another moment of inspiration with just 38 seconds of normal time to play.

🇲🇦💙❤️

Abde, remember the name!#LaLigaEsMundial | @osasuna_en

— LALIGA English (@LaLigaEN) December 7, 2022

As shown by his forward-carry map below, he is excellent at bursting into the box with the ball at his feet. He also averaged the longest distance per carry in La Liga last season, at 8.1 metres, further highlighting that impressive forward momentum.

Even with the occasional frustration, Abde is a player who can turn a game on its head.

Returning from Osasuna to his parent club Barcelona, the Moroccan faces a different proposition. No longer the major source of attacking inspiration at the club, Abde is having to bide his time.

He has played 68 minutes so far this season of a possible 270. In that time, he’s taken four shots, swung in seven crosses, and completed four runs into the penalty area.

Against the sort of deeper, lower blocks Barcelona generally face, Abde is doing everything he can to create opportunities. But so far, his dribbling skills have largely been annulled.

Take his 22-minute cameo against Cadiz, for example. Keeping the width out on the left, he receives eight passes but is almost always smothered by an organised block, with multiple players shuffling across to make sure that he can’t cut inside, as seen below.

He takes the ball to the byline but is dispossessed.

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Six minutes later, a similar situation. Abde takes the ball to the edge of the penalty area but is stood up by the full-back, with three further players blocking his progress. He manages to wriggle around the outside and deliver the cross, but it is cleared away.

Finally, moments before the eventual breakthrough, Abde does manage to cut inside and get a dangerous shot away, parried behind by an inspired Jeremias Ledesma in the Cadiz goal.

While Abde’s dynamism is helpful in these situations — another thorn in the side for a tiring defence — his impact has so far been sporadic.

Not quite able to hold onto the ball as well as other forward players in the system and lacking that consistent incision in his crossing, Abde’s role in this Barcelona side looks to be more about flashes of brilliance than the sustained chaos seen at Osasuna last season.

Perhaps the imminent departure of Ansu Fati paves the way for more minutes, but Abde needs time and — more importantly — space to do what he does best.

(Top photo: David Images; design: Sam Richardson)