Barcelona legend agrees with PulseSports reporter, rates Gavi above Bellingham

Barcelona legend Hristo Stoichkov has agreed with the opinion of Pulse Sports journalist Tosin Abayomi, who expressed his belief that Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham still had some catching up to do with Spanish midfielder Gavi.

On an episode of PulseSpirts Crossfire, Abayomi noted that Gavi was currently the superior player, due to his starring role in Barcelona’s 2022/23 LaLiga title, while Bellingham was yet to pop his trophy cherry.

Ex-Barcelona striker Stoichkov apparently holds the same opinion and even went a step further to claim that the English midfielder did not deserve to win the Golden Boy award.

The iconic Bulgarian forward leaned more towards another Barcelona star Alejandro Balde or Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala as more deserving winners of the award.

Speaking with Tuttosport, the organisers of the Golde Boy awards, Stoichkov was asked if he felt Bellingham was a deserving winner of the 2023 edition of the award, and the former Parma and Al-Nassr forward replied, “No [he shouldn’t have won].

Stoichkov praised Bellingham’s talent, saying, “I don’t dispute his value. He’s one of the strongest talents in the world: he’s got a lot of class and a lot of brains. For me, he’s a mixture of Michael Laudrup, Kaka and Paul Pogba. The future is his. The next Ballon d’Or will be played with him, Mbappé and Haaland,

The Barcelona icon, however, followed that statement by saying, “But I’d like to know what he won in 2023 between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid. Nothing.”

“Given that Gavi, the reigning winner, was not eligible under the regulations I would have given it to (Jamal) Musiala or (Alejandro) Balde, who won La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup with Barcelona.”

Stoichkov played in 255 matches across two spells with Barcelona, winning five LaLiga titles, one European Cup, and one European Cup winners Cup with the Blaugrana, so his thoughts might also be clouded by his affiliation with the Catalan club.