There can be few more idyllic places to grow up than Sant Celoni. Nestled between the Montseny Massif mountain range and the Parc del Montnegre i el Corredor, the small Catalonian town is also just over a half-hour drive from pristine beaches overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

However, such was Marc Guiu’s dedication to football from very a young age, hiking or sunbathing was never top of his agenda. Really, all he wanted to do was kick a ball around.

‘As a kid, I would spend all day playing football in the park, and especially in my grandad’s garden,’ Marc, who only turned 19 on Saturday, says.

‘I would play with whoever I could – friends, my grandad, people I would find in the park! And when I was five, I started playing for Sant Celoni, which is a club that is affiliated to Barcelona.’

Marc represented his hometown team for two years. Every moment of his spare time would be spent in his grandfather Manel’s garden, learning off the former footballer. Before he could focus on shooting, which he loved more than anything, Manel would make Marc work on his heading and his passing. He even learned to cope with being fouled, and what it took to bounce straight back up.

The impact of his grandfather cannot be underestimated and the bond between them was clear to see when Guiu signed for Chelsea in the summer.

‘I started playing football because of my grandad, because of you,’ Marc explained, turning to face Manel. ‘You were a huge inspiration to me as a child playing on the pitch all day.’

He continued: ‘I've always said my grandfather is my inspiration to keep going in football – that I am where I am thanks to him and it's all so I can live my dream and his, too. So, it's really important that he is here today because he's been there through it all with me throughout my career so far.’

Marc was seven when his parents received a letter from Barcelona. Marc’s performances for Sant Celoni had grabbed their attention, and he was invited to trial with them. The young Marc couldn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about; his parents and his grandfather most certainly could.

‘I would spend all day at school, then at 5pm I would finish school and get in a taxi to Barcelona, train, and then get back home at 10pm,’ recalls Marc of those long days once he had signed for Barca.

‘To be honest, I didn’t get the chance to see that much of the area I grew up in because of this. I didn’t have much time to do anything, to go to the parks or the mountains. But when I had a day off at the weekend, we would go to Calella de Palagrufell, a beautiful coastal town.

‘I lived in Sant Celoni right up until my last two years at Barcelona, when I moved to La Masia,’ adds Marc. ‘I was always very close to my family, so it wasn’t too hard to move there.’

Guiu thrived during his decade or so training at La Masia, Barcelona’s legendary academy. One of his first footballing memories is scoring four goals in a game to help them fight back from 4-0 down to draw. League titles in each age category were the norm. But it wasn’t a period without its challenges.

‘The work rate at Barcelona was extremely high and it was also super-competitive – there were always new players coming in and you had to compete with everyone, fight for a place in the team,’ says Marc.

‘Throughout my youth, I had a lot of growing pains and some stages I would be in pain after training, but I had to keep working hard, so that forged my character.

‘When I moved from seven-a-side to 11-a-side, at around 12 years old, I realised this was something I could do, and something that I was good at.’

Marc received his maiden professional contract aged 16, and just a year later, in October 2023, he stepped onto the pitch to make a historic senior debut for Barcelona.

Just 23 seconds had elapsed between Marc’s entrance and him scoring a goal that turned out to be a late winner against Athletic Bilbao. In the process he became the fastest and youngest debutant to score for Barcelona, and in the blink of an eye had transformed himself into a household name in Spain. The ‘wow’ moment of his footballing development had arrived – and how!

At the end of that season, Marc pursued a change in direction, and a significant one at that considering he was leaving the club he had joined at seven years old.

Chelsea was his choice of destination, and we have already seen plenty of evidence of the all-round striking ability that makes him such an exciting prospect. His six UEFA Conference League goals, including that hat-trick against Shamrock Rovers, means he sits at the top of the scoring charts in that competition ahead of the knockouts. He will hope to earn more minutes when we meet Morecambe in the FA Cup on Saturday.

‘So far, it’s been an amazing journey,’ he reflects on his start to life at Stamford Bridge.

‘I’m very happy. There are a lot of young players and a lot of staff at the club that are helping me to get to know everyone, and how things work. They’ve all been super welcoming.

‘My objective now is to win as many trophies as I can, and contribute as many goals as I can to the team.’

From a little boy in his grandfather’s garden to a burly young man playing for Chelsea, Marc’s journey shows no sign of slowing down.