The United States International goalkeeper Diego Cochin will sign a new contract with Barcelona Monday which will keep him at the club until 2028, sources have confirmed to ESPN.
The club previously announced the deal earlier this year, but sources told ESPN it was never signed.
The 18-year-old’s previous contract, signed when he turned 16 in 2022, was due to expire at the end of the season.
Cochin is yet to make his competitive debut for Barça but has been a regular in the team’s first training session and played 29 minutes in a friendly against them. Liga MX Side Club America in Dallas last year.
He currently plays for the club’s reserve side Barça Atlético in the Spanish third division and has been included in the last two USMNT squads under new coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Born in Miami to Venezuelan and Peruvian parents, he joined Barça for the first time in 2019 after moving to Spain with his family in 2018.
Francis Hernandez was previously the director of Spain’s youth teams. revealed that he staged a play to convince Kochan to represent him La RojaBut the goalkeeper made it clear that his desire is to play for the United States.
Cochin is one of three young Americans currently in Barca’s first-team squad.
Midfielder Pedro Soma, an international with the US U20 side, joined from Cornellà in the summer and is also part of the Barça Atlètic squad.
The third is Adrian Simon Gill, who has just returned from a long-term injury that kept him out for over a year and is playing for Barça’s U19 team.
Kochan, Soma and Gill were all born in the US in 2006 and separated the eldest Gill from the youngest Soma after just six months.
He wants to follow in the footsteps of Conrad de la Fuente and Sergino Dest and become the next American to play for Barca’s first team.