Barça youngster Aleix Garrido: "Now it's my turn to follow in Gavi's footsteps"

The Spain U19 national team kicks off their European Championship campaign on Monday in a tournament that will be played in Malta until 16 July.

The team coached by Julen Guerrero take on Iceland at the Centenary Stadium in Ta'Qali (9.15pm). And they will do so with a Barcelona player as the orchestra, Aleix Garrido, who is about to close a dream season.

The Barça youth teamer is making his international debut in the same season in which Xavi Hernández gave him his first-team debut. His debut, on 1 April against Elche, did not have continuity, but it helped him to make the leap to the reserve team, with which he was on the verge of promotion to the SmartBank League.

Unless there is an unexpected change in Xavi's intentions, the midfielder will join the first team's tour of the United States from 19 July to 3 August. Aleix Garrido will not have a single day's holiday. And he doesn't mind, as he explained in an interview with the programme 'Tot gira' on Catalunya Radio.

"When I come back from the national team we're already in pre-season and I'm not here to ask for holidays," he said. "There is nothing comparable to being able to do the preseason with the first team. It's one thing to be called up for a one-off match and another to spend weeks with your idols, get to know them first-hand and fight every training session and every match to earn a place in the team one day."

In this sense, Garrido was happy about his recent renewal until 2025 with a release clause of 400 million.

"It's a clause that's a big deal," he added. "This means that the club has a lot of confidence in me and that I'm staying here for the next two years."

The midfielder acknowledged that he had had some other proposals, but not from the Premier League: "Not that I am aware of. Anyway, I was very clear that I wanted to stay at Barça."

Garrido was delighted with the season that is about to come to an end: "I have no complaints. The best moment was my debut with the first team, but there have been many more things. Gaining experience at Barça Atlètic has been very important. We made the playoffs and were on the verge of promotion. And now it's time for the national team."

He has only words of thanks for Xavi, who was full of praise for his game on the eve of his debut in Elche: "When he calls you up, you realise that he knows you, but hearing what he said about me is a motivation and it is appreciated."

Xavi even compared him to Pedri, but the midfielder understands that footballers can't compare themselves.

"Comparisons are inevitable, but it doesn't cross our minds as footballers," he continued. "You're never going to look like Xavi, Pedri or whoever. I look at them, but we have nothing to do with each other."

However, he acknowledged that having played from the age of seven in the Blaugrana youth ranks and having seen the best Barça in history, that of Pep Guardiola, have marked his way of playing: "All my life I've had the Barça DNA instilled in me. You'd turn on the TV and see Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta with Messi in front and you'd say: 'If I focus on them even a bit, as long as I have something of the thousand things they have, it would be good.' We had the best players at Barça and it was obligatory to focus on them."

Aleix also spoke of his friendship with Gavi, with whom he has worked his way up through the youth ranks: "We've enjoyed a lot together. We get on well and we maintain our relationship. We've been thinking about playing together in the first team, but it's very difficult. He seems to have made it and now it's my turn.

The midfielder spoke of the tears of emotion that escaped him during an interview for Barça TV on the day of his debut in Elche: "When you get what you've been waiting for for so many years, these things happen. I still don't know how I was able to finish speaking and it gives me goosebumps when I hear myself."