At 23 years of age, Pedri is already set for his second FIFA World Cup™, having cemented his status as one of the best midfielders on the planet and a standout figure the Spain national team.
Hi extraordinary talent was evident from a young age, as Pepe Mel, the former Las Palmas coach, told FIFA.
“There was never any doubt he had a brilliant future ahead of him,” said Mel, who first opened the doors of elite football to the midfielder. “We were told about a boy with enormous potential who had already outgrown every team he had played for. “We watched him and said, ‘If he can do this professionally, then we have a genius on our hands. If he gets intimidated, loses confidence or isn’t capable of reproducing what he’s showing now, then he still has a long road ahead of him.’”
That first scenario proved to be the case.
Pedri, a product of street football and an admirer of Andres Iniesta, first played for his hometown club in Tegueste, which a town of around 10,000 inhabitants on the island of Tenerife. He later moved to Juventud Laguna before joining Las Palmas’ academy in 2018. He was viewed as the latest jewel of Canary Islands football, following in the footsteps of stars such as Juan Carlos Valeron and David Silva.
During pre-season ahead of the 2019/20 campaign, Mel called Las Palmas captain Aythami Artiles to tell him a young academy player would train with the first team. “When I arrived, he was already there,” Aythami remembered. “We greeted each other, I introduced him to everyone and showed him around the dressing room.”
After training, the veteran defender drove Pedri back to the academy residence because the midfielder was only 16 and too young to drive. “He became like a son to me,” he added.
Every morning, Aythami would leave home with his two children, stop at the Las Palmas residence to pick up Pedri, drop the children at school and continue together to the training ground. He affectionately nicknamed him ‘enano’, or ‘little one’ in English.
“Sometimes I asked him what he had done the previous afternoon and he would tell me he had gone to an escape room or played football or basketball – normal things for his age,” Aythami explained. “He was a 16-year-old kid, but when he got on the pitch, it was a completely different story.”
Aythami still vividly remembers the first training session he shared with Pedri. “We were asking ourselves just where he had come from. He had everything: he could easily control the ball with either foot, turn in every direction, shoot, switch play, and protect the ball. Nobody could get it off him. At 16, he was already doing the things he does now. It was astonishing. He was different. Later on, we did an endurance test and he came out on top. People now say he has improved defensively, but he was already like that. Whenever he lost the ball, he immediately sprinted to win it back. He was physically outstanding.”
Despite concerns inside the club that promoting Pedri too quickly might be risky, Mel had no hesitation in taking him to the first-team pre-season camp in Marbella.
“Some people at the club thought it was too soon and that he needed to progress more gradually,” said Mel, who has more than 700 matches as a coach in professional football on his résumé and is now now sporting director of Moroccan club Ittihad Tanger.
“But I was convinced from the very beginning. One day, while the players were walking onto the pitch for training, I was talking to the president. He asked me about Pedri and I said, ‘This kid is going to be a millionaire and he still doesn’t know it.’ I’ve coached players like Federico Valverde, Dani Ceballos, Fabian Ruiz and Alberto Moleiro – all of them made their professional debuts with me. I think I know what I’m talking about when I say Pedri is a brilliant player, capable of doing things many others simply cannot.”
Pedri made his debut for Las Palmas in Spain’s second division on 18 August 2019, immediately as a starter. A few days later, during the club’s 70th anniversary gala, Mel met Emilio Butragueno, who had attended representing Real Madrid. The pair had been team-mates at Real Madrid Castilla during the 1980s.
Mel recalled: “I told him we had a player who was going to become a football genius and that, for the money involved, he could be a fantastic signing for Madrid. He asked me his name and called Madrid right in front of me. They told him they already knew about him, but that they didn’t quite see it.”
On 2 September 2019, Pedri officially signed for Barcelona for a reported fee of €5 million plus add-ons, although he remained on loan at Las Palmas for the season. At that point, he had only played three matches in the second division.
“You looked at him and it was as if nothing had changed,” said Aythami, who played more than 400 matches in professional football and was also one of the players who shared the most minutes alongside Pedri at Las Palmas. “I told him that if all of that had happened to me at 16, I would have run back to my village to shout it from the rooftops.”
Las Palmas failed to win any of their first five league matches that season before facing Sporting Gijon.
“In the morning, I gathered the players and told them we had to win no matter what,” Aythami recalled. “After lunch we went home together and in the car he told me: ‘Relax, today I’m going to score and we’re going to win.’” Las Palmas won 1-0. Pedri scored the winner from outside the box.
“He”s got aura,” Aythami said. It was the first goal of Pedri’s professional career.
The following summer, he arrived at Camp Nou and began a spell in Barcelona that has already stretched to 245 appearances for the club. It has also seen the fulfilment of a family dream. In 1994, eight years before Pedri was born, his grandfather founded a Barcelona supporters’ club in Tenerife, based out of the family restaurant, Tasca Fernando. His father later became president of the supporters’ club, which has since been renamed Pena Barcelonista de Tenerife – Pedri Gonzalez.
When Pedri arrived at Barcelona, he admitted in an interview that even the plates and paella dishes in his home carried Barça colours. Since then, he has become indispensable under coaches Ronald Koeman, Xavi Hernandez and Hansi Flick. In his first season alone, he made 52 appearances and won both the UEFA EURO Young Player award and the Golden Boy trophy.
“In terms of talent, I have never seen another player like him in the world,” Xavi once said. “He reminds me so much of Andres Iniesta. If we are talking about pure talent, he is the best footballer in the world.”
Aythami still watches Pedri with almost paternal pride. “I’ve always supported Barça, but now I watch matches because of him. Many times, if he gets substituted, I stop watching the game. And on the rare occasion he fumbles a pass, I feel it as badly as if I’d done it myself.”
Now, he dreams of seeing Pedri become a world champion.
