Wunderkids: Building football’s most exciting young XI - week five: Gavi, midfielder

It is the stuff of management dreams — a blank cheque to build the most exciting young starting XI in world football.

But that is exactly what new BBC Sounds podcast Wunderkids is offering, in fantasy form at least, over its 11 episodes. The first five episodes are available to listen to now.

The Wunderkids team, in conjunction with BBC Sport, have come up with 11 players — and presenter Steve Crossman will be joined by experts to discuss the latest inclusion, with one new player revealed each week.

So far, new Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez, Bayer Leverkusen winger Florian Wirtz, Ajax midfielder Ryan Gravenberch and Santos defender Kaiky have made the cut — and now Barcelona midfielder Gavi joins them.

A product of Barcelona's famous La Masia academy, Gavi is a technically gifted, tough-tackling midfielder.

A native of a small village near Seville, Gavi was recruited at the age of 11 by Barca from Real Betis' academy. His growth in the six years since has been rapid and impressive.

He went from the under-17s straight to the under-19s — a rare transition for a player at La Masia — and made only three appearances for the club's B side before graduating to a first team in dire need of spark and longing for a new homegrown hero.

He was man of the match in his first home start against Levante and provided the assist for the last-minute equaliser against Granada, showing a calmness and execution that had eluded more experienced team-mates with a cross for Ronald Araujo to head in.

His impressive form for his club then translated on to the international stage as he became Spain's youngest player, aged just 17 years and 62 days.

During the 83 minutes he was on the pitch, he played an influential role in ending Italy's unbeaten