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Despite his natural talent, the route to the Catalonian giants has not been straightforward for Tavares, according to his father Helio, with years of dedication to “training, late nights, early mornings and the family spending money”.
“At the age of nine he came for a trial at Norwich, he was so shy, he didn’t show his football,” he said.
Tavares failed to break into the Canaries’ academy on that
Norwich City tried to persuade 16-year-old prodigy Ajay Tavares to remain at the club before he signed for Barcelona.
The young winger’s move to the Spanish giants was confirmed earlier this week and he will initially be part of Barca’s Juvenil A squad.
“We spoke to him about staying here, we had good talks about that, but at the end he made the choice to go and I understand why,”
Spanish giants Barcelona have signed Norwich City academy prospect Ajay Tavares.
The 16-year-old had reportedly attracted interest from a number of European clubs and Norwich will be entitled to compensation, although the Canaries have not confirmed the financial aspects of the deal.
Tavares, who first joined Norwich at under-12 level, was sent on as a substitute in a first-team pre-season friendly against Dutch club Volendam last summer when only 15,