Generation Next: 5 most promising centre-back pairings of the future

#2 Marc Bartra and Jorge Meré (Spain)

Meré (left) and Bartra (right) are at the head of the queue for La Furia Roja's future

The Sergio Ramos- Gerard Piqué combination has been crucial to everything good (and a few bad things) that La Furia Roja has done in the last 6 years since the retirement of stalwart Carles Puyol.

Bartra has emerged as the third choice centre-back for Spain since he moved to the Bundesliga to join Borussia Dortmund where he has gotten better than he was at FC Barcelona.

A ball-playing defender with an excellent reading of the game and great distribution, Bartra was seen as the long-term replacement for Gerard Pique while he was at Barcelona and will look to replace the Catalan at the national level as well.

Expected to be his partner is Jorge Meré who plays for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. Also regarded as the natural successor to captain Sergio Ramos, the left-footed Meré shares Ramos’ aggressive style of defending although he is also capable of playing out from the back.

With other centre-backs like the Real Madrid pair of Nacho and Jesus Vallejo as well as Real Sociedad’s Diego Llorente in contention, the pairing of Bartra and Meré looks like one for the long term given the relatively young ages (for defenders) of Ramos (31) & Piqué (30).

Bartra has earned 12 caps so far while Meré is yet to be called up after playing through all the youth ranks for Spain.