It’s not every day a player moves from Norwich City to Barcelona.

Yet that is what happened when Ajay Tavares, a 16-year-old England youth winger who also has Portuguese nationality, signed for Spain’s champions from the English Championship side in February.

On March 1, with around 15 minutes left of a league match against Real Mallorca, Barca Under-19 coach Pol Planas handed Tavares his debut. It was a cameo, but it was enough to leave the home crowd at the Joan Gamper Stadium and people within the club eager for more.

“I spoke to Ajay that Sunday, before his first game,” says Ryan Elton, one of his former youth coaches at Norwich. “He was very much trying to take it all in, and then post-game, he said he felt he performed better than he anticipated he would. It was a lot to take, initially.”

For Barca, Tavares’ debut reflected a broader strategy when it comes to youth talent. So, who is Ajay Tavares? And how does his signing fit in with the Catalans’ plans?

Tavares’ arrival at Barcelona was highly anticipated. He did not make a senior appearance before leaving Norwich, but had long been rated within the academy and played for their under-18s earlier this season. He also made an appearance for the senior team in a friendly against Dutch side Volendam during pre-season last summer.

Barca had been tracking him for months, and an agreement in principle had been in place for a while, before bureaucracy complicated the process behind his move this winter window.

Given Tavares’ age and his registration with Norwich, the regulations around minors moving from England posed an obstacle for the Spanish club. His Portuguese passport ultimately proved decisive and allowed them to complete the deal, as negotiations with Norwich stretched until the closing moments of deadline day.

For Tavares, it was a stressful experience. The final stages of the transfer were a rollercoaster of paperwork and uncertainty but those close to him say he handled the situation with maturity.

“There are no words to explain it,” his father, Helio, told BBC Look East. “You talk about Barcelona coming to pick up a boy from Norwich, it’s beyond unbelievable.”

Interest in Tavares extended beyond Barcelona. Clubs including Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig explored the possibility of signing him. But once Barca made their move, the player’s preference quickly became clear.

“We can’t forget the fact that this might have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join arguably the biggest club in the world,” Elton says. “And he’s earned the opportunity.”

Tavares, who has played for England’s under-15s, under-16s and under-17s, follows in the fairly recent footsteps of former English youth internationals Louie Barry, who swapped West Bromwich Albion’s academy for Barcelona in 2019, and Marcus McGuane, who left Arsenal to join the Catalans’ reserve side in 2018.

Neither made a senior appearance, and both are now in League One, England’s third tier. Barry, 22, is on loan at Stockport County from Aston Villa and McGuane, 27, is with Huddersfield Town.

In Tavares, Elton remembers a player whose work ethic was impossible to ignore in Norwich’s academy — although he did not make the cut when he first tried to join as an under-nine, before eventually signing at under-12 level in 2022 from local club Aylsham.

“With Ajay, the first words that come to mind are talented, obviously, but part of that is pure dedication to try and maximise himself,” he says. “Everything he did was at a really hard-working level; how he trained, how he played and how he got his outcomes. His mindset was to be the best version of himself all the time.”

Tavares’ rise through Norwich’s youth system happened quickly, aided by growing up with a younger brother, Morgan, who also plays for their academy. Elton says Ajay’s father held review meetings with his son and the club every six weeks and remembers an under-14 tournament in 2024 where the player shone.

“We went to Charlton Athletic for the Valley Gold Cup and played in a stadium with loads of people watching,” he says. “He scored a goal and it just looked natural to him. I remember after the game, he said to me, ‘It’s the first time I’ve ever played in a stadium’.”

In 2023, Tavares played above his age group with the under-16s in their version of the National Cup for the Premier League. He was part of a Norwich side who were losing finalists against Aston Villa on penalties.

“It was pretty clear by this point why the English FA had such an interest in him,” Elton adds. “You’d turn up to fixtures and people would ask you about him. After the game, they would shake your hand, referencing how he played.”

People at Barcelona have praised his attitude since his arrival.

Tavares’ attitude has already been praised by voices around Barca (FC Barcelona)

“He has remarkable physical strength for his age and a brutal capacity for sacrifice,” said one club source who, like all those consulted for this article, asked to speak anonymously as they did not have permission to comment. “He is very confident and you can tell that he wants to learn, on and off the pitch.”

What else stands out about Tavares?

“His eagerness to go and disrupt defences through high pressing, high energy, high regains, knowing that he might then get high return in goals,” Elton says. “He would always give you the impression of giving everything. He’d leave his body out there physically. And as the years have gone by, technically, he’s made good improvements. He’s become more balanced, playing off either foot.

“He’s always had a preference to play slightly off the left side on the front line. English supporters would generally link that to someone like Thierry Henry, where they like to come in on the inside, cause centre-halves and full-backs problems, are very direct and have an eye for goal.”

In Catalonia, Tavares has also been adjusting to new aspects of his life away from the game.

“The first thing he said to me was about the food and the standard of the food he’s eating,” Elton says. “In the environment he’s in, that also comes with considerations about nutrition for his performance goals. But the quality of the food, the technical level of the game and the intensity within that (have stood out). And then also a conversation led to really challenging his mind as well as his body.

“He’s developed a young football brain. But he’s now at Barcelona. We consider ourselves high level, but we have to acknowledge and be humble that Barcelona might be another level above that.”

Tavares is viewed as a long-term investment at Barca — but that does not mean there is any shortage of optimism around him now.

“I’d like to think Barcelona have got the aspirations that he might play for them (the senior side) one day,” adds Elton. “And as part of playing for a team that big, he will be competing in the highest competitions, for the highest trophies. He’s still an England international in his age group, so no doubt that could be something he could achieve one day.”

“He has very good qualities,” one Barca source says. “If we are patient, he will be an important player (for the under-19s) next season and can make a difference.”

With limited resources to compete for established signings at senior level, Barcelona are increasingly placing their faith in identifying and developing young players who could eventually feed into the first team. Under sporting director Deco, there has been a renewed focus on reinforcing the path to the first team with youngsters who can be developed. Tavares is a clear example of that thinking.

His first appearance for Barcelona’s Juvenil A (under-19) team lasted around 15 minutes. He played another 17 minutes against Huesca on March 8, as Planas’ side drew 2-2. He was an unused substitute in their most recent match, a 1-0 defeat against local rivals CF Damm.

For now, those first steps have provided just a brief glimpse of a young winger stepping onto the pitch in unfamiliar surroundings. But he is already showing enough to leave people within the club excited about what might come next.