The Barcelona staff was surprised when Marc Guiu scored his first goal for the first team in just 33 seconds.

The 17-year-old, who will be 18 on January 6, 2019, has been working with the first team every day since Robert Lewandowski hurt his ankle and has shown everyone at the club what he can do.

This isn’t your normal Barcelona number nine who will drop deep and run the channels; that’s not his strong suit. It’s important for him to be on the last defender’s shoulder and wait for the right pass, which is what happened on Sunday night. During his run, he timed it perfectly to stay onside. He then opened his body, took the ball off his feet with just one touch, and sent it past Unai Simon, Spain’s best goalie. After winning the game against Athletic Bilbao, Guiu played in his first Champions League game on Wednesday.

Because he scored so many goals with the under-18s, the youngster is a more traditional number nine than Barcelona usually has. He was quickly promoted to the club’s B-team, which is why Xavi chose him when he lost Lewandowski. He was told by the Barcelona coach that he would get a chance. Even Barcelona’s forward-thinking boss didn’t think it would happen so quickly and go over so well with him.

The player, Guiu, joined the club in 2013 from a youth club in his home town of Sant Celoni, which is about an hour’s drive northeast of Barcelona. He stood out when he was seven years old, and he has been making steady growth since then. There was a preseason game between his team and Andres Iniesta’s old team, Vissel Kobe, in February of this year. It was his first professional deal.

With five goals already this season, he got the attention of Rafa Marquez, the coach of Barcelona’s B team, who played him in a recent game against Nastic in a third-tier league in Spain. And Xavi put him on his team for the game against Granada before the international break.

Having scored eight goals in 12 games for the Under-17s, he has also caught the eye of people around the world. He scored four goals in the last U-17 Euros, the same number as his close friend Lamine Yamal. On Sunday, they were both on the field at the same time as his goal helped Barcelona beat Athletic Club.

The next night, Guiu played in the Champions League for the first time. He replaced Joao Felix in the 75th minute of their 2-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk. 

The coaches at Barcelona like how he always tries to learn from more experienced players, especially center-back Ronald Araujo, who has taken him under his wing since he was promoted to working with the first team. After the game, his dad Manel said, “I’m the happiest man in the stadium.” “We never in our wildest dreams thought this would happen.” There were tears everywhere: his mom, his sister, and me. 

“This moment is the result of 11 seasons of hard work.” When he gets home, I’ll give him a hug and tell him to keep doing what he’s been doing.

Things will never be the same again. There were 47,000 people following him on Instagram before he got off the bench at the Lluis Companys Stadium. He now has more than $900,000. 

Gaizka Mendieta, a former midfielder for Barcelona and Spain who was watching the game against Bilbao on TV, said, “He won’t sleep tonight.”

Because of how he played in the second half against Athletic Club, he might be needed more going forward.