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FC Barcelona have the squad with the youngest average age in LaLiga Santander this season, as the Blaugrana turn to several rising stars to lead a long-term plan to guide the club back to the top. One of them is Nico González, the midfielder who just turned 20 at the beginning of January and who is enjoying a breakout campaign.
Nico is the son of a LaLiga Santander legend; his father Fran is the record appearance holder for RC Deportivo, having represented the Galician club 700 times. Fran was the captain of the Super Depor side that lifted the 1999/2000 league title, while the one-club man also won two Copa del Rey titles and three Spanish Super Cups. Nico could hardly have wished for a greater role model as he took his own first steps in Spanish professional football.
After starting out at local Galician side Montañeros, Nico was enrolled in Barcelona’s prestigious La Masia academy in 2013 at the age of 11 and rapidly rose through the ranks, to the point where he made his debut in senior football at the age of just 17 by featuring for Barça B in Spanish football’s third tier.
After truly standing out for Barça B in 2020/21, Ronald Koeman invited the midfielder to work with the first-team squad last summer. As expected, he impressed and was in line to feature in the Catalan club’s first friendly of the pre-season, only for a stomach bug to keep him on the sidelines. When his opportunity did come in another friendly against Girona, Nico grasped it and later earned his competitive debut with seven minutes off the bench against Real Sociedad on the opening day of the current LaLiga Santander season.
From there, Nico never looked back. He quickly became an important player for Koeman and then Xavi, so much so that he has made the fifth-most appearances of all Barça players this campaign. Only Marc-André ter Stegen, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué and Frenkie de Jong have accumulated more appearances this term than Nico’s 25.
Nico hopes to make his first appearances for the Spanish national team’s senior side as well, having already represented his country at youth level. If Nico is included in Luis Enrique’s squad list for the March internationals, which many pundits believe he will be, it could be an extra special debut for the midfielder as La Roja will play in his home region of Galicia for the first time in 13 years. They’ll face Iceland at Depor’s Abanca Riazor Stadium in A Coruña, the ground where Nico’s father wrote so much history.
Nico is only just starting to write his own story, as he too dreams of winning a LaLiga Santander title. He believes that his father’s experiences can help him, although he pointed out in an interview with regional daily La Voz De Galicia that Fran’s advice has been much more than that of an ex-footballer. “My father has helped me by being there at every moment,” he said. “The fact he played at a high level in his day can be an added bonus, but he’d have helped me just as much even if he hadn’t been a top-flight footballer all those years, because he has looked out for me every day.”
With a contract that runs until 2024 and having just been officially registered as a permanent first-team squad member, inheriting Philippe Coutinho’s No.14 shirt, Nico is a key part of Barcelona’s future plans as they look to win silverware again under Xavi. If he can one day lift the LaLiga Santander trophy, it’ll be an extra special moment for the González family.
