Where do you think you’ll be when you are 17? Well, many 17-year-olds now are sitting in a classroom planning their futures in college, only dreaming of having the opportunity to play soccer in front of millions. Well, this kid is that dream. 17-year-old Marc Guiu just recently became the youngest debutant to score for Barcelona. Just 23 seconds after he subbed in, Marc scored the game-winning goal over the Athletic Club, making the score 1-0.
But before we begin talking about that, let’s go back into the life of Marc Guiu. He is 17 years old and was born in Granollers, Spain (located near Barcelona and Sant Celoni) in January 2006. In Granollers, soccer was an extremely popular sport that funded a lot of players to the sport. Because of the popularity, a lot of kids grew up on soccer, and several clubs were formed, dragging in a lot of scouts to view the younger, rising players. These things are the reasons why he was looked into fairly quickly. He wasn’t just extremely talented at a young age, but he also had a good physique, mentality, and height (Which is roughly 6’1″) He grew up playing for several different club teams including Penya Barcelonista Sant Celoni, then continuing onto the clubs youth set-up in 2013 when he was 7. Then he went through the La Masia academy until he was finally called up to play in June of 2023. He had played a handful of games for the Under-19s in the UEFA Youth League, where he scored three goals in nine appearances. Several of his coaches and former coaches have described him by saying he is best with aerial play, a “penalty-box specialist”, and say he is mentally aware of his strengths as well as his flaws. (He usually shows his strengths and hides his flaws)
On October 22, a Sunday during the game against Athletic Bilbao, Marc had been sitting on the bench for the whole game until they finally subbed him in to make his official debut where he ended up shocking the whole soccer community. During the 79th minute, around 4,740 seconds into the game, Marc Guiu was pulled off the bench by Xavi Crues, FC Barcelona coach, and put in. In just under 30 seconds, he ended up in a one-on-one goal scoring opportunity taking his first shot on target the entire game and ended up slipping it just passed the goalkeeper, resulting in the goal of a lifetime. He became the fifth youngest-ever goal scorer for Barcelona, as well as scored the fastest goal by a debutant in the club’s history. The camera pans over to the stadium and you see his entire family, dad (Manuel Guiu), mom (Eva Guiu), sister (no information), and brother (Xuc
la Guiu, not pictured). His mom and sister are crying with joy, pride, and so much love. They never would have imagined their son, and brother, would have scored in his first ever game for FC Barcelona, but he managed to exceed all odds and scored a lovely goal during the first opportunity he was given. I am sure we will be seeing more of Marc in the future, and expect great things.
