It’s taken 10 years for Marc Guiu to be an overnight success at Barcelona
What a debut!
To score on your debut for any club is the stuff that dreams are made of, but to do so for Barcelona, in your first match in professional football, and only 33 seconds after taking to the field of play really is something else entirely.
Marc Guiu is a 17-year-old striker but has the body and physicality of a fully-grown man. He doesn’t have the profile that would normally be presented by a La Masia graduate, and that in itself is a departure for Barca.
Only very occasionally have the Catalans found success playing with what we would class as a ‘traditional’ centre-forward.
Guiu is a bit of a throwback in that sense and like all good strikers he certainly knows where the goal is.
He’s been banging them in with alarming regularity for the Spanish youth team for his age, and his immediate impact on the first-team won’t have come as any surprise to those that have watched him blossom at the club since joining as a seven-year-old.
Marc Guiu scored his first LaLiga goal for Barcelona quicker than any player in the club's history.
— Squawka (@Squawka) October 22, 2023
It only took 33 seconds. ✨ https://t.co/ooehZvTXJS pic.twitter.com/JRN3DEiafx
Ivan Carrasco was recently interviewed about the player for whom not that much is known, and Guiu’s former coach was fulsome and genuine in his praise of a youngster who Carrasco says is a very hard worker, already knows his strengths and weaknesses and, as a person, is ‘a 10 out of 10.’
Is it any wonder with such a glowing endorsement, that Guiu continues to take everything in his stride..
One has to credit Xavi for the decision on the night too.
Barca had been woeful for large parts of the match against a laboured Athletic Club, and it was a brave shout to throw caution to the wind and put Guiu into the Lion’s den.
No one could’ve expected what came next but as the old saying goes ‘you’ve got to buy a ticket if you want to win the raffle.’
17 - At 17 years and 291 days, Marc Guiu is the youngest player to debut with a goal for Barcelona in @LaLigaEN in the 21st century.
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 22, 2023
Surprise. pic.twitter.com/IimYMrdK78
The three points won because of Guiu’s strike could well end up being some of the most important picked up in the season too, and ahead of El Clasico - where Barca could now leapfrog Real Madrid with a win next Saturday - that’s worth celebrating.
It will be interesting to see if Xavi decides to keep Guiu with the first-team now to allow him to integrate with the likes of Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez et al.
Whether or not that’s the case, he is yet another example of La Masia beginning to churn out some worthwhile talent again after some barren years.
How far he can go from this point is down to the player himself, but at least no one will ever be able to take away the memory of his first ever involvement in senior professional football.
It doesn’t get any better than that.
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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