With Chelsea completing the signing of Marc Guiu from Barcelona, we analyse the 18-year-old wonderkid who scored on his debut for the Catalan giants but is now heading to the Premier League. Find out more about this exceptional finisher with a big future...
Monday 1 July 2024 17:31, UK
Marc Guiu needed 33 seconds to announce himself to the football world. That moment came in October when he was introduced for his Barcelona debut late in the game against Athletic Bilbao and promptly scored the winning goal.
He was 17 years old at the time, plucked from La Masia, the club's famed academy. Guiu was asked to step up because of an injury crisis that had robbed head coach Xavi of a host of attacking options including the great Robert Lewandowski.
The response was spectacular, more than his watching parents could comprehend, more than Guiu himself had dreamed of, judging by his reaction. He described it as "unimaginable" but caveated that by saying that he had worked for this all his life.
There is truth to those words. Albert Capellas, Barcelona's former assistant director of youth football, explains.
"Now, everybody is talking about Marc Guiu," Capellas tells Sky Sports. "But he arrived at the club 10 years ago when he was seven years old. That means that the club has had to wait 10 years before he could play for the first team. It is a long time."
In some respects, Guiu was an overnight success, entering the public consciousness in an instant. He had not been tipped for the top with quite such certainty as the younger Lamine Yamal, for example. But he overcame every test Barcelona had thrown at him.
"Every year for a player at Barcelona, it is an exam," says Capellas.
"You have to pass this evaluation every year for 10 years. That is one of the good things about Barcelona. They have lived with this pressure all of their lives. I can promise you that a player who has spent 10 years at Barcelona, they are a good player, for sure."
And yet, for Guiu, there was the complication of multiple growth spurts. At a very young age, this impacted his development. "He could not play because he had problems growing. He had pain in his knees and there was a long period when he was carried."
Unable to show his true quality, he was not a regular for his Barcelona age-group side from the age of 13 to 15. "He missed a lot of games. He could not train." It took real resilience from the player to continue and patience from the club to stick with him.
"What happens at a lot of clubs, if you cannot train or play, maybe you have to leave. At Barcelona, we know the level of the players, we give them time. We are experts in development. That means we do not take these crazy decisions on young players."
What was it that Capellas and others at Barcelona saw in this boy?
Guiu is perhaps not the typical La Masia product, the diminutive forward reliant on close control and short passes to connect with others in the final third. In Barcelona's academy, he was seen instead as a penalty-box player, much more of a modern No 9.
Capellas regards him as exceptional, in his own way.
"First, you must define what you mean by exceptional. Lamine Yamal, he is a different player. Exceptional, also. But in different skills. We should say why a player is special because Marc Guiu is also special. Gavi is also special. They all have different skills."
What are Guiu's skills, then? What is it that not only propelled him to the first team but allowed him to make an impact once there? "Marc Guiu is a finisher. He is a deep runner. He is a very good header. He is fast, powerful, a fantastic boy. Very competitive."
Capellas adds: "Marc Guiu is not a player who has unbelievable skills one against one, who can dribble past players. He is another type of player but he is exceptional in his position, in the work that he has to do, in his mentality. He has the nose to score goals."
He is exceptional in his position, in the work that he has to do, in his mentality. He has the nose to score goals.
Much of that was evident immediately against Athletic. His goal, swift though it was, came as a result of his second run off the shoulder of the last defender. It highlighted his awareness of space, his intelligent movement, his pace and his finishing prowess.
"There was no fear in his face," said Xavi later that evening. "I told him he would get one chance. He got one chance and he took it." He talked of Guiu having that spark, that something about him that leads a coach to believe he can be the difference maker.
Guiu had only made his debut for the B team just before his senior bow, his progress fast-tracked after a summer in which he scored four goals for Spain in the UEFA U17 Championship in Hungary. He finished as joint-top scorer alongside Lamine Yamal.
By December, he was showcasing that talent at Champions League level, coming off the bench to score a stoppage-time equaliser for Barcelona against Antwerp. This was a header from Ilkay Gundogan's free-kick, another aspect of his attacking game.
His first La Liga assist was provided by Joao Felix, his first Champions League assist delivered courtesy of Gundogan. There is a lesson there, one that Capellas learned long ago during his time working with Barcelona's B team and seeing young players progress.
"When I talk to players who have been in the academy and they have the chance to play for the B team or the first team, their comments to me, they say, 'Albert, it is much easier to train and play for Barca B than the under-18s.' Of course," he exclaims.
"They are better players, more experienced, their technical skills are better, the conditions are better, the fields are better. You are with better players and you are a good player so it is easy. When you go to the first team, the difference is even more."
It might sound counterintuitive, but there is a logic to it. "In the first team, surrounded by the best players, it is easy for you as a young player. You are surrounded. When you get the ball, the other players are always available in open lanes for the passes," he adds.
"For example, when you get a pass, it is always a good pass. It is never a bouncing ball. It is always to the right foot, with the right timing at the right moment. When you are playing in the lower categories, the technical skills and the decision-making are worse.
"The goal of Marc Guiu against Athletic Bilbao. Why did he have success? Because he had Joao Felix next to him who could see the pass at the right time with the right speed on the ball. That is why he had the chance because he had the players around him.
"Of course, then he has to finish the action and he did it well."
Guiu has already demonstrated he can connect with Barcelona's best players. As he prepares for his big move abroad, the challenge will be to show that he can replicate that understanding outside the confines of Barca, the club that has long been his world.
It brings to mind a conversation with Bojan, a former Barcelona wonderkid who debuted at the age of 17. He had to adapt to a different world upon embarking on a globetrotting career beyond Catalonia, one that highlighted the difficulties this can present.
"It is the best academy in the world. I believe in that philosophy. But let's be honest, how many players make it at Barcelona? So, the other ones, as soon as you leave, there are only a few clubs that have the same mentality. Elsewhere, it is completely different.
"These players aren't ready to play in teams that don't have the ball, teams that have to fight, teams where the running stats are more important than what you do with the ball. It is another world. These young guys are not really prepared to play in other teams."
For Guiu, there are a number of reasons why this is unlikely to be such a problem. The most obvious is that he is good enough to be at Barcelona or find a club capable of playing in a similarly dominant way, where he can use the skills that he has learned at La Masia.
Just as significantly, as explained, this is not a typical Barcelona player. There is more to his game, qualities that are more easily transferable. Guiu offers an aerial threat and is capable of thriving when there is space in behind as well as when that space is tight.
After that sensational start, Guiu has had to be patient. Since turning 18 in January, there have been a couple of appearances in the Copa del Rey, a few minutes off the bench at home to Granada in La Liga and an hour against Mallorca in his first league start.
"We are all very proud when we see a young player have their opportunity to play for the first team. And then, of course, they have to deserve it to stay there. There will be further tests. Marc Guiu is ready to play one game, three games or five games.
"To be ready to play for 15 years? There will be more tests."
Those tests will now come at Chelsea.
