“Damn Fair-play.” The protest is repeated in the offices of the Barcelona Sports City: “It has conditioned us. The logical thing, in a large team that plays every three days, is to have a squad with 21 outfield players, plus two or three goalkeepers. We have 17, plus Marc [Ter Stegen] and Iñaki Peña.” To balance the accounts, those responsible for the football area, first Mateu Alemany and then Deco, needed to make a devastating restructuring in the first team: only five players remain – Sergi Roberto, Ter Stegen, Araujo, De Jong and Pedri – of the 23 that was in the group of the 2020-2021 campaign, when Joan Laporta returned to the presidency. “The cleaning has been spectacular,” the coaching staff remembers. The salary bill is budgeted at 496 million compared to the 631 million for the 2020-2021 academic year. The purge left Xavi with no choice but to look at La Masia. “We all went up with great enthusiasm to take advantage of these moments of difficulty for the club,” stressed Marc Guiu, 17 years old, the savior against Athletic, scorer of a goal as soon as he took the field that gave his team the victory on the day of your debut.
There was a time when Barça boasted about the youth team. In 2012, they beat Levante (0-4) with 11 players trained at La Masia: Valdés, Montoya (replaced Dani Alves in the 15th minute), Puyol, Piqué, Jordi Alba, Cesc Fàbregas, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Pedro. To the extraordinary talent that had coincided at that time, was added a club with economic muscle. In 2015, the year in which Barça won its last Champions League, the Blaugrana had five youth players and they had Ter Stegen, Alves, Mascherano, Rakitic, Luis Suárez and Neymar. La Masia, at that time, continued producing footballers. The problem was that it was impossible to move those players from the starting eleven. Even a world champion like Pedro had to go to Chelsea, tired of playing the garbage minutes that Messi, Suárez and Neymar left him.
“Today two things happen: financial need and a coach who believes. Before, middle class players were signed but not now. “That opens the door to homegrown players,” explains an employee. Along the same lines, the coaching staff adds: “We even had to sell players to have fair-play. And to sign for the sake of signing, we prefer to look down.” Since he came to the bench, Xavi has given 13 homegrown players their debuts, none as surprising as Lamine Yamal, who already made his debut and scored (against Georgia) for La Roja. “There is a generation of players that is brutal. We have been following her since we arrived,” says a member of staff. That litter is that of Cubarsi (2007, starter at Barça Atlètic), Marc Bernal (2007, Youth B), Héctor Fort (2006, starter at Barça Atlètic), Pau Prim (2006, Youth A, who alternates with the reserve team), Dani Rodríguez (2005, Youth A and affiliate) and Marc Guiu (2006, Youth A). All in the Rojita sub-17, with the exception of Rodríguez (sub-18). Everyone has already trained with the first team.
Guiu, a reference nine
The focus today is on Marc Guiu, the youth player who scored the fastest goal in his debut with the first team: 34 seconds. He “he took the pre-Benjamin tests and already stayed. First in soccer 7 and then in 11. He is not the typical Barcelona forward, like Lamine, who is all dribbling, all talent. He is a child who is the typical reference 9. He is almost six feet tall and has a very good build. He is very fast, very a scorer. He is right-handed, but handles his left leg well. He is a player whose main characteristic is what he did against Athletic: go into space very well and finish. He had scored that goal 50 times in youth football. The fun is doing it in the first team,” describes Jordi Roura, former quarry coordinator. “He paints very well. And he has level. He knows when it’s time to play with the third man, when he has to attack the space. He can be a number 9 for Barça, starter or replacement. He surely advanced his process due to the situation of the first team,” the coaching staff analyzes. Xavi is clear: with Lewandowski in the infirmary, Guiu has a place in his small squad. And Barcelona is going to register him for tomorrow’s match against Shakhtar Donetsk.
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