The Blues have reached an agreement with Guiu, according to The Athletic, and will activate a €6 million release clause in his contract with the Spanish club, allowing the 18-year-old to join Chelsea during the summer transfer window.
The centre-forward will sign a six-year contract with the Premier League club, completing his summer move from the club he joined eleven years ago. Guiu has made seven senior appearances for Barcelona since joining from the academy, scoring twice.
Guiu became the youngest player in Barcelona history to score in his debut appearance, doing so in the 80th minute of their 1-0 victory over Athletic Club in La Liga.
After reaching an agreement with the English club, the youngster will travel to London to undergo a medical and sign his contract before preparing for the 2024-25 season.
Chelsea has reached an agreement in principle with Marc Guiu to sign the 18-year-old striker from Barcelona on a contract that runs until June 2030.
The west London club will activate a €6 million (£5.1 million; $6.4 million) release clause in Guiu’s current contract at Camp Nou and schedule a medical in London.
Guiu joined Barcelona’s La Masia youth academy in 2013 and has been with the club ever since.
He made his first-team debut in 2023 during Barcelona’s preseason tour of Japan.
Last season, Guiu alternated between Barcelona’s first team and Barcelona Atletic, the club’s reserve team that competes in the regionalised Spanish third tier.
Throughout the season, the Spain youth international appeared in seven first-team games and scored twice. Guiu’s match-winning goal in October’s 1-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao made him Barcelona’s youngest player to score on debut, at 17 years and 291 days. For Barcelona Athletic, he scored six goals in 17 games.
Chelsea had prioritised signing a striker this summer, with Nicolas Jackson serving as the club’s main central forward in 2023-24.
Romelu Lukaku, Armando Broja, David Datro Fofana, and Mason Burstow are among the attacking players who will return to Stamford Bridge this summer after loan spells elsewhere.
‘It feels like Barcelona is losing its heritage.’
Analysis by Laia Cervello Herroro.
FC Barcelona fans will never celebrate a player’s exit from La Masia. It feels like losing more than a player; it feels like losing a piece of the club’s history.
It was hoped that when Robert Lewandowski left Barcelona, Marc Guiu would replace him. He is still very young and has produced a good goal return despite limited playing time in the first team.
Football’s promiscuity, as well as FC Barcelona’s financial crisis, have inevitably promoted this way of thinking.
Guiu, for whatever reason, had never been one of the club’s over-promoted players until he scored the winning goal against Athletic Club less than a minute into his first-team debut.
The Barcelona fan was fully aware that players would have to be sold. Except for a young generation of talent from La Masia, the economic situation is serious, and sales are required to build a future project that has yet to be fully defined.
With all of the talk in recent weeks about the club wanting to cash in on Mika Faye and Alex Valle, fans realized that the club needed to sell, even if it meant selling players from the club’s youth team.
They didn’t have as high hopes for him as they did for Yamal, and many of them only remembered him from one game. It feels like 6 million euros fell from the sky to the club when they least expected it, which can help to heal some of the finances.