‘Not even an ounce of talent’: Ronaldinho’s son FINALLY makes his debut for Barcelona’s Under 19s

‘Not even an ounce of talent’: Ronaldinho’s son FINALLY makes his debut for Barcelona’s Under 19s but is slated online as fans ridicule the youngster and dismiss any comparisons to his legendary father

• Ronaldinho’s son made his Barcelona debut for the club on Wednesday
• But the youngster struggled for the club’s U19s side on his first outing
• Social media later pounced to reject comparisons to his legendary father 

By Ryan Walker For Mailonline

Ronaldinho’s son has finally made his Barcelona debut but failed to shine as onlookers were left less than impressed by his skill and trickery.

Joao Mendes signed his first professional contract with the club at the start of March after impressing during an initial trial period.

The 18-year-old was handed his first Barcelona match shirt for their U19 academy team in the Mediterranean International Cup on Wednesday afternoon.

His appearance for the Juvenil B team came off the back of a wave of expectancy as adorning Barcelona supporters waited to see if Joao Mendes would live up to his father’s legendary status.

However, a video montage of his performance has been posted online that shows the youngster struggling to make the impact that many hoped he would.

Ronaldinho’s (pictured) son has finally made his Barcelona debut for the club’s youth team

Ronaldinho’s son Joao Mendes (right) signed a first contract with Barcelona at the start of March

Mendes (left) failed to impress in the youth cup clash on Wednesday afternoon

Ronaldinho wrote himself into the Barcelona history books during a trophy-laden spell at the club between and won two LaLiga titles, the Champions League, two Spanish Super Cups and not to mention a Ballon d’Or award for being the best player in the world.

On first appraisal, that superstar talent doesn’t appear to be possessed by the Brazilian’s son who struggled in his first Barcelona appearance.

The 29 second video clip features various snippets of Mendes’ performance where he tried to recreate some of his dad’s trickery, unsuccessfully attempted to get past opposition players and struggled to pick out team-mates in the box.

Many players in the past have been overly criticised following a difficult debut before going on to endure stellar careers, but social media didn’t hold back after the clip of Mendes quickly gathered over 7million views.

One harsh critic insisted that the youngster didn’t possess ‘an ounce of talent’ and ‘would be livid’ if he was Ronaldinho.

Another post similarly ridiculed Mendes’ performance by dashing any comparisons to his World Cup winning father, stating: ‘Like father and definitely not like son’.

Mendes’ inability to dribble past the opposition full-back was also questioned as one onlooker suggested that ‘there are 16 year olds from Newham east London better than this guy’ and another quipped the academy talent ‘didn’t even dribble past one man’.

However some did attempt to balance the argument and show support for Mendes by insisting that his first showing shouldn’t be overly scrutinised, posting: ‘It’s his first year. He’ll adapt to the elite academy level and then it’s up to him to go beyond that’.

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