BarcelonaThe Barça squad has a most unique story on the verge of reaching the first team. Guillermo and Toni Fernández are two 16-year-old teenagers who are leading the Blaugrana subsidiary. They are first cousins and share both surnames. Fernandez and Casino. Indeed, their parents are siblings and so are their mothers. This caused Toni and Guillermo to grow up together between the Zona Franca and Rubí. However, his association with Barça begins at a bakery in Sant Cugat.
Guillermo’s father and Dani Horcas, who in 2018 was the coach of Barça’s C youth team and also worked as a recruiter, were mentioned in this establishment. The cousins played for Espanyol and were “the best of their generation and the emblems of grassroots football”. Horcas proudly asserts that after winning the final of a Benjamí tournament with Espanyol by 6-0, he convinced Mr. Fernández to change teams at the bakery in Sant Cugat.
Toni and Guillermo arrived at the soccer base culer “in pack” because “they were both very good”, remembers the former coach of La Masia. And he explains that since Toni’s father was “difficult to handle” he negotiated with Guillermo’s until he managed to convince him.
Different on and off the field
The cousins advanced categories together on and off the field. In the first season in the Blaugrana youth team, they won all the League games. Joan Coll, coach of the youth A of Europe, faced it last season. The Fernández’s competed against youngsters despite being cadets: “We did the pre-match analysis and they were the two most dangerous players in Barça,” he says. Coll is amazed: “They were playing against boys four years older than them!”
Guillermo had already stood out as a cadet with the generation of another year. He scored eleven goals and was the team’s second top scorer playing as a midfielder. Toni has stood out this past year, in which he jumped from cadet to youth and was the team’s top scorer.
Horcas believes that connection and talent come from a young age. “When they played with the fry they understood each other perfectly and were constantly looking for each other.” Outside La Masia, Guillermo lived in the Zona Franca and Toni in Rubí, but his ex-coach recalls that they were inseparable: “They were always at each other’s houses”.
Despite the family and sports bond, the cousins are different. “Guillermo, right-handed, is a midfielder with good physicality and arrival who likes to move the team. Toni, left-handed, can play as a midfielder or on the right wing and is more talented and electric,” says Coll. On the personal side, Horcas also sees them as different: “Guillermo is serious, shy and disciplined; on the other hand, Toni is more active and outgoing.” However, Coll highlights their sporting attitude: “Despite receiving many fouls, they don’t complain and keep playing.”
Toni Fernández showed off his trapper skills at the Estadio de la Ceràmica.
Knocking on Flick’s door
Today, in the first year of the youth stage, the Fernández are playing with Barça Atlètic. To put it in context, they are from 2008, a year younger than Lamine Yamal, Cubarsí and Bernal. They are the youngest footballers in the subsidiary and have already earned a place in the starting line-up. The goal-scoring debut of both was played. They scored their first goal four minutes apart. And they became the first (Toni) and the third (Guillermo) youngest scorers in the history of the subsidiary.
Toni Fernández’s first goal with Barça Atlètic.
Hansi Flick already noticed the pair of cousins in the pre-season. “When I arrived at the club they were only fifteen years old and they were training and playing at a high level,” said the German in a press conference. The Fernandez went on the tour of the United States. There, Toni stood out, who had minutes against Manchester City and Milan, and surprised the Barcelona fans by the calmness with which he took the penalties in the shootout of each game. The idea of the club for this season is that they win filming in the First Federation with Barça Atlètic.
The determined commitment to the young people of the club and Hansi Flick can make them debut with the first team sooner than expected. At the moment, they have already entered the call-ups for the last League and Champions League matches. Horcas marks the third competition as the ideal one for his debut. “In the Copa del Rey they will have minutes for sure”, he predicts.
Barça is aware of the potential of the cousins and has them tied up until 2027, with the possibility of extending the contract for two more years. The representation agencies have also moved quickly and have already captured Guillermo (Jorge Mendes) and Toni (By & For). Club, representatives and environment hope that the Fernández lineage will soon pass from the Sant Cugat bakery to the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium.
