Cameroonian Wilfrid Kaptoum a rising star at Barcelona

Any combination of injuries, departures or drops in form for Andres Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic, Arda Turan, Rafinha or Sergi Roberto, and Wilfred Kaptoum will be up next.

That's a lot of team-mates he has to plough through to get into Barcelona's starting lineup, but we do know Luis Enrique likes the 19-year-old midfielder.

That might be the only possible reason he stays at the club next season waiting for this chance, because there's little benefit for him to keep plying his trade in Group 3 of Segunda B.

Barcelona B aren't getting promoted back to Segunda A, and Kaptoum would develop quicker playing regular football in Spain's top flight.

Like Denis Suarez and Alen Halilovic, he could be sent out to one of the club’s La Liga rivals next season and, just as the two attacking midfielders before him did, improve rapidly.

Kaptoum plays similarly in style to Andres Iniesta—albeit the youngster is obviously a long way beneath the heights of the Spaniard.

The Cameroonian star is extremely creative with the ball at his feet, and boy does it stick there once it's within his control.

Kaptoum made his debut against Villanovense in the Copa del Rey in October. He was Barcelona's best player and the team's driving force on an otherwise disappointing, drab evening in which they drew 0-0.

Strong in the dribble but with a good eye for a pass, too, Kaptoum often draws attention towards him during games. He is hard to ignore.

One editor at Diario Sport, Josep Capdevila, an expert on Barcelona's youth system, told Bleacher Report: "He has great vision on the pitch and is good at dribbling and excellent at arriving in the box.

"[However] Kaptoum is not excellent defensively; that needs to be worked on. He's always thinking about the attack, rather than having a defensive mind."

That has proved to be a problem for Halilovic at Sporting Gijon this season.

When the going was good, he was playing week in, week out. But now Abelardo's men are embroiled in a relegation scrap, Halilovic's game-time has been greatly reduced, because he can't muck in as well as his team-mates.

If Kaptoum works on that, he could thrive at a La Liga side next season.

With Nastic, Girona and Zaragoza still able to be promoted, they might be attractive options for him because they are all relatively close to Barcelona. He may not have to uproot his life, and the Blaugrana can also keep a close eye on him.

Because Barcelona’s Asturian coach likes Kaptoum, there’s a chance he won’t want to let the midfielder leave the club next season. But on the other hand, with Rafinha back from his long-term injury, potential game-time for the African talent is greatly reduced.

The best option for him is to try his luck elsewhere while being carefully monitored by Barcelona, who can pluck him back when the time is right.

Denis Suarez will rejoin Barcelona in the summer, according to Diario Sport, having jumped through the hoops he needed to while at Sevilla and then Villarreal.

He was sold, but Barcelona are officially buying him back, and the club could choose to do the same thing with Kaptoum—or just loan him out.

Kaptoum has too much talent to waste plodding around in Segunda B, and he has too few opportunities of progression within the club to stay at Barcelona—barring that spate of injuries and drops in form.

In 12 months’ time, the ideal situation for Barcelona would be seeing Kaptoum light up La Liga with another side. If he's successful, Barcelona would be the ones having serious discussions over whether he should be brought back to fight the 2017-18 campaign in maroon and blue.