Before football became a squad game versatile individuals would often be damned with faint praise.

They were known as ‘utility players’. A jack of all trades.

The far more fluid nature of tactics and team selections week-on-week in the 21st century has changed that perception dramatically.

Now, the ability to chameleonize has become a rare and priceless commodity, though naturally this comes with a significant caveat: that the player in question is able to fulfil each brief to a high standard.

The epitome of flexibility

Over the last decade Dani Olmo has come to epitomise this unusual capacity to embellish every different role he inhabits.

Going as far back as the 2019 Under 21 Euros, he played on the left wing for La Rojita in their opening game before switching to the opposite flank for their next.

In the semi-final, the Catalonian was deployed as an attacking midfielder before being pushed forward as the team’s main striker in the final against Germany.

Olmo scored the winner and was awarded Man of the Match.

In his subsequent 57 appearances for the Spanish first team he has principally been used as a number 10, but also stationed on both wings, up front, and on occasion assisting the centre-forward as a second striker.

There is even a sixth role to consider, his international bow seeing him positioned centrally in a brief cameo off the bench.

This flexibility extends to his club output too, as his starting roles for RB Leipzig and Barcelona across the last five-and-a-half seasons illustrates.

Dani Olmo’s starting positions for LB Leipzig and Barcelona combined

Games: 236

Attacking midfielder: 147

Left winger: 32

Right winger: 29

Centre forward: 12

Centre mid: 9

Second striker: 7

Shape-shifting, but always impactful

It is, of course, one thing to be impactful across the whole expanse of the pitch, and quite another to be elite wherever deployed. So elevated are Olmo’s performances for Barcelona and Spain it has given rise to countless online debates about what his best position may be.

A multifaceted skillset lies at the heart of his gift for versatility, the player blessed with an innate awareness of space and movement and, moreover, a slippered touch honed at La Masia, where he graduated.

Add a shrewd game-intelligence into the mix – notably, the 28-year-old is a dedicated chess player in his free time – along with a selflessness in attitude and application and what is constructed is a player who can shape-shift from one game to the next, all while remaining an outstanding performer.

These traits have not only made Olmo a fan favourite at Dinamo Zagreb, RB Leipzig and Barcelona – the player returning to Camp Nou in 2024 after initially emerging there as a youth prospect – but has earned him the respect and gratitude of every manager he has played under.

As his national team coach, Luis de la Fuente put it earlier this summer, per Tribuna…

“He's very versatile and can naturally play in top-level positions. Very few players possess Dani's ability to play between the lines. It's a great joy for us that he can perform in any role”

A welcomed recognition

Yet even in modern climes, with a rightful and new appreciation of versatility, there is still a danger of such a player falling between the cracks. Even being taken for granted.

Which is why Olmo’s Ballon d’Or recognition in 2024 was welcomed by so many, the result of a particularly stand-out year for the player.

In his final season at Leipzig, before making a €60 million return to Catalonia, he played an instrumental role in the German club attaining Champions League football, the majority of the damage he inflicted on opponents being done down both wings.

Preceding this, he kick-started the season in spectacular fashion, converting a hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the DFL-Supercup.

The player then switched his attention to international matters, proving himself pivotal in Spain’s Euro success that summer.

Mirroring his importance to the under 21 set-up five years earlier, Olmo once again strayed from his midfield berth to set up extra-time winners from out wide, and maraud forward, scoring a tournament-high three goals.

The most vital of these was unquestionably a semi-final winner at the expense of France.

There was once a time when a player such a Daniel Olmo Carvajal would have been viewed as a jack of all trades. Consistently, he has showed himself to be a master of many.