Alkass Digital
With Chelsea set to trigger Marc Guiu's release clause at Barcelona, the 18-year-old wonderkid who scored on his debut for the Catalan giants but is now set for the Premier League.
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.
Albert Capellas, Barcelona's former assistant director of youth football, explains.
"Now, everybody is talking about Marc Guiu,"
"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."
"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."
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."
It seems those tests will now come at Chelsea.