Guille Fernandez: The latest 15-year-old talent breaking records at Barcelona

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Barcelona Atletic sealed a late 3-2 victory against Osasuna Promesas last Sunday, a result that extended their unbeaten run to 11 matches as they chase promotion to Spain’s second tier.

An 89th-minute winner from Mika Faye secured the points for Barcelona’s reserve team — with coach Rafael Marquez’s side second in the Primera Federacion Group 1, just behind the first team of 2003-04 Champions League semi-finalists Deportivo La Coruna.

But reaction to the result has been dominated by just one thing: the growing buzz around another emerging talent at Barca, Guille Fernandez.

On Sunday, Fernandez came off the bench to set a new record as the youngest player to represent Barca Atletic (the team used to be called Barca B). At the age of 15 years, nine months and 13 days, he broke the mark set by Lamine Yamal when the winger made his debut for the reserves last May.

With Yamal now firmly established as one of the Barcelona first team’s best players, and fellow La Masia graduate Pau Cubarsi also starring both for Barca and Spain’s senior national team, Fernandez is widely regarded as the club’s next big talent set to emerge.

An attacking midfielder, Fernandez’s Barca Atletic bow follows three appearances for the under-19 team competing in the UEFA Youth League this season — a competition in which Yamal is still Barcelona’s youngest-ever player.

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Despite the fact he only turns 16 in June, Fernandez has been promoted in his development, regularly playing with Barcelona’s Juvenil A and Juvenil B sides — the under-19 and under-18 teams respectively — over 2023-24.

Born not far from Barcelona, he has already featured for Spain’s youth sides, and in February he caught the eye with four goals for the under-17s in a 7-0 victory over their German counterparts at a tournament in Portugal.

Securing his future at the club before he turns 16 is seen as a priority among Barca’s academy directors, who also know the player wants to stay. Signing him to a first professional contract will be high on sporting director Deco’s list of tasks, once the season is complete.

Those who have worked with Fernandez at academy level have no doubts he will make his senior debut “sooner rather than later”. He has already completed several training sessions with coach Xavi’s first team this season, and it would not come as a surprise if he is taken on Barcelona’s pre-season tour in the United States.

That is definitely a reflection of his quality, but it should also be noted the group going to the U.S. is likely to be rather weakened, with lots of players either rested or absent because of the European Championship in June and July and the Olympic Games’ football tournament, which coincides with the tour.

Albert Puig is one of Fernandez’s former coaches at La Masia, and now assistant manager at Greek top-flight side Aris Thessaloniki. He managed the youngster at under-13s level, two years after he was signed from city rivals Espanyol, with Puig having spotted his talent in local derbies.

“Guille is a player with a huge physical quality,” Puig says. “He has always been physically more developed beyond his age group; he is powerful, has the capacity to repeat runs and a fantastic ability to burst into a quick first step and dribble, or to protect the ball perfectly. His passing and awareness of the game are also very good, as you can imagine, coming from La Masia.

“He is, most of all, an attacking midfielder, but isn’t just a player who stays in position and waits to receive the ball in tight areas. He is an expansive player who also needs to have ground to cover to maximise his virtues. He is also very useful dropping deep and helping in the build-up process, as he can beat lines either by driving the ball up or passing through.”

There have also been aspects of the game where Fernandez has needed to improve, as Puig describes, something that has been seen as perfectly normal through the learning process.

“He is so direct, sometimes even a bit too much,” Puig says. “This is something that has been corrected in La Masia, because he always has the intention to play forward and move quickly to the opposition’s goal. He has adapted with no problem at all.”

Another one of his biggest strengths is his mentality, according to Puig.

“His character is massive. Guille is extremely competitive. He loves (to win), and wants to win all the time. He demands a lot from himself and his team-mates as well — always in a respectful way, of course. But he really sets the tone of the team and makes sure all his mates are switched on.”

Guille Fernandez vs Germany pic.twitter.com/IkqX64xHsw

— XDcomps (@XDcomps) February 10, 2024

Those close to Fernandez say his target has for a long time been to become a professional footballer at Barcelona. His agent is the influential Jorge Mendes, who is well connected not just to the club president Joan Laporta but to Barca’s first team. The Portuguese also represents Barcelona players Yamal, Alejandro Balde, Joao Cancelo, Joao Felix and Ansu Fati. This is expected to help in negotiations over a new contract, with Mendes recently being involved in the extensions agreed with Yamal and Balde.

“On a personal level, he’s had the standards of a professional since a young age,” Puig adds. “He takes care of himself, distractions off the pitch have never been an issue and he remains extremely focused on football. He wants to achieve something big.”

But Puig is also keen to stress that — regardless of the justifiable excitement about Fernandez’s talent — Barcelona should handle his progress carefully.

Apart from managing physical work and taking care to avoid any overload or potential injury, which has proved to be a challenge for the club in the case of Pedri, now 21, he says there is another risk attached to the latest generation of talent coming through.

“We are talking about Yamal and Pau Cubarsi getting to the first team at the age of 16, plus the likes of Gavi and Balde before them. It might look to some that either you make your debut at that age or the club does not trust you. And it can’t be that way.

“For the future, as a message, it will be important to make clear that any rewards based on performances are great. But rewards to youngsters just because there are comparisons drawn with Yamal’s path to the first team would be a risk.

“I know Barca works a lot on this — and in the case of Guille, he has all the items to make it through.”

(Top photo: Ricardo Nascimento/Getty Images for DFB)