Over the past decade or so, there haven’t been too many full-backs to compare to Dani Alves and Jordi Alba.
When the pair were in tandem for the couple of years before Alves decided to move on to pastures new, Barcelona were unstoppable, and that was as much down to their marauding runs down the flanks as anything else.
So, for anyone to be placed in that bracket is a big claim indeed. When that player is just 22 years of age, it makes you sit up and take notice.
Leicester City’s James Justin has played every minute of their 2020/21 Premier League campaign so far, and his former manager at Luton Town, Nathan Jones, has tipped him for great things.
“You look at top full-backs like Dani Alves and Jordi Alba who have played for Barcelona and won World Cups and European Championships… JJ [Justin] is in that mould,” he told talkSPORT.
“He will go all the way. The boy will play for England. We believe that if he ends up at Barcelona it’ll be no surprise. He’s that good.”
Brendan Rodgers clearly believes in the youngster as his status as an ever-present would indicate.
Arguably, it’ll be some years yet before Barcelona come calling, if in fact they do, but at least this would allow Rodgers the luxury of overseeing the player’s growth, and with any luck, watching him help bring honours to the Foxes in due course.