Does he threaten his place or protect his future: does Barcelona's new striker serve Hamza Abdelkarim?

Hamza's current situation makes little sense without a look back at where it all began.

The player who left Al Ahly was no first-choice striker in the senior side, nor did he boast the kind of official numbers that would make his move to Barcelona look like the natural reward for a trophy-laden career. He rarely featured. His genuine chances came in lesser competitions, and that made his switch to Europe feel at first like a bet on raw talent rather than payment for a job already done.

Then came Hossam Hassan. The manager handed him one of the biggest leaps imaginable for a player his age, calling him into Egypt's World Cup squad. Given how little senior experience Hamza had, the decision caught plenty by surprise.

Four World Cup matches followed, 56 minutes in all, with no goal and no assist. The numbers alone hardly mark it out as an exceptional tournament to judge him by. Yet the real value lay somewhere else entirely. At 18, he found himself rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush, soaking up the atmosphere of a global tournament and the crushing weight of expectation from fans and media, in an edition that saw Egypt reach the last 16 for the first time in their history.

The move to Barcelona was a huge step in itself. What followed in pre-season made it even more exciting. Hamza didn't just train with the first team, he used every chance to thrust himself into the middle of the fight for the centre-forward berth.

He scored twice against Birmingham City, added a goal against Basel, then found the net against Al Ahly in the Joan Gamper Trophy. Four goals in pre-season prompted Hansi Flick to talk about him in technical terms that went well beyond the usual praise for a young player.

The German picked out his ability to attack crosses, hold up the ball and move inside the box. These are exactly the details Barca want from their striker.

That shifted the question inside the club. Nobody was asking any more whether Hamza deserved a chance with the first team. The real question was this: could he earn a genuine role in the new season?

The irony is that the best answer to this question perhaps came from Flick and Deco themselves.

Flick confirmed after the win over Al-Ahly that Barcelona are still searching for an out-and-out striker. Deco, meanwhile, stressed how hard it is to replace a player of Robert Lewandowski's calibre. The message was clear: the club don't want to enter a long season leaning on a young player who has yet to complete a full campaign in European football.

None of this should be read as a negative verdict on Hamza. Barcelona may be utterly convinced of his talent while still believing that dumping the entire weight of the attack on an eighteen-year-old would make no sense.

You can discuss topics and news in greater depth on the Kooora forums

A new striker's arrival looks like bad news for Hamza on the surface. It means fewer minutes for him, and a harder road into the starting line-up.

View it through the lens of the player's development, though, and the picture changes entirely.

Hamza did not move to Barcelona after a long career at Al Ahly or a full season in the Egyptian league. He arrived instead after a phase in which he was searching for a chance to play, went straight into the World Cup, then found himself in Barcelona's first team.

That tremendous speed of ascent can be a strength. It can also become a danger if it loads the player with responsibilities greater than his current ability to bear.

Making Hamza Barcelona's first-choice striker turns every match into a direct test. Score, and he is the discovery of the season. Go three games without a goal, and the comparisons with Lewandowski begin. Squander a decisive chance, and the moment becomes material for criticism. Let the team's level drop, and the striker's position is the first place everyone looks for the causes of the problem.

That is a very heavy burden on a player of eighteen.

Bring in a major first-choice striker, however, and Hamza can experience an entirely different phase. He trains daily with a top-level striker, watches his movements and learns from him. He gets real minutes in La Liga, the cups and the Champions League, and starts some matches when Flick needs to rotate, without being required to settle every match he enters.

Perhaps the greatest irony in Hamza's story is that the best thing for his future may not be what seems best for him in the present.

Yes, not signing a striker will give him a greater chance to start, and it will place him in an advanced position within Flick's plans. But the presence of a big first-choice name could give him something more important: time.

Time to learn without noise. Time to make mistakes without his slips turning into a crisis, to feature without being required to save Barcelona, to gain experience in La Liga and the Champions League, and to understand how to handle a long season rather than just a successful preparation period.

After two or three seasons, the equation could change completely. By then, Hamza may have gone from a player chasing minutes at Al Ahly to a striker who has played dozens of matches with Barcelona, rubbed shoulders with Europe's best defenders, featured in the Champions League and learned how to deal with the pressure of the Catalan shirt.

Only then does the question, is Hamza ready to be the first-choice striker, become a perfectly logical one.

For now, though, perhaps the better question is this: how do we maintain the pace of his development without rushing the stages?

Seen from this angle, a new striker does not look like the enemy of Hamza Abdelkarim's dream. He may be one of its best allies: a striker who carries the burden of the present, while Hamza quietly builds himself up to carry the burden of the future.

Mourinho: Mbappé makes me laugh, Rodri raised my doubts, and I smelled the scent of Negreira!
Surprise: Real Madrid's transfer window is over, except in one case