Gavi makes history: fourth youngest debutant at Barça

It was the 74th minute, when a fledgling face was covered with a mask to protect his still damaged jaw. Just at that moment, the delegate Carles Naval looked at a small paper where he had noted the change of number 20 for 30. On 20 it was Sergi Roberto, who was convalescing after suffering a rib fissure, and on 30, Pablo Martín Paéz Gavira, better known as Gavi, a talent from La Masia, who at 17 years and 24 days, debuted with the first team.

He has not been the most precocious player in history, but he has lacked little. In fact, the record seems very difficult to achieve: Vicenç Martínez managed to make his debut in the first team with only 16 years, 9 months and 5 days, at the end of the 1940s. Although someone who knows Gavi very well, Ansu Fati, was very close to achieving it, staying 20 days from the absolute record: 16 years, 9 months and 25 days. The forward is the second-earliest player, completing the podium, Bojan Krkic, debuting just on the day of his seventeenth anniversary.

So, another kid from La Masia who enters history through the front door. And is that with 17 years and 24 days behind him, Gavi has just entered the first team kicking the door, without even waiting to play in the subsidiary, and with the endorsement of all the coaches, who consider him literally “one of the best talents who have passed through Barcelona's grassroots football”.

His natural position is a midfielder, moving with ease on both the right and left flanks, He has a special talent for always looking for the best-placed partner and does not shy away from one-on-one. His talent is so huge that Koeman has decided to continue in first team dynamics after completing a spectacular preseason, where he ended up with a fracture in his right jaw after a dispute with a rival in the last match of the stage for Germany and Austria, against RB Salzburg.

Everything seems to indicate that Gavi will follow in the footsteps of Ansu Fati and will skip the subsidiary. The Dutch coach has already made him debut this Sunday, leaving a very clear message in the dressing room: he is ahead of other first team players, including Riqui Puig.

There is no doubt that Joan Laporta has more than enough reasons to rub his hands before the batch of people from home who are about to land, some have already done it successfully, such as Gavi, Nico and Ansu Fati. And without forgetting Pedri, who despite not being a talent trained at La Masia, is already a reality in every way. None of them are over 19 years old …