Riqui Puig: From A Finals Fan In The Stands To A Starter, Prodigy Is Ready For The Champions League

In a season that could end trophyless, Riqui Puig, alongside fellow academy graduate Ansu Fati, has been a revelation for FC Barcelona.

Picked up at age 13 before progressing through La Masia, he is now a near-permanent fixture in Quique Setien’s midfield.

The youngster on the outside looking in under his predecessor Ernesto Valverde, it was Setien who gave Puig his maiden senior run out in La Liga’s last term, on the same night that the new coach also manned the Camp Nou dugout for the first time.

Getting 20 minutes at the end against Granada on a chilly January evening, Puig showed off one of the best facets of the game in stealing the ball on the left wing and then starting the move that resulted in Lionel Messi’s important winner.

Save for three minutes approaching full-time versus Levante, however, when Fati stole the headlines with a brace, Puig never featured for Barça again in the Spanish top flight after failing to impress in the Copa del Rey during a trip to Ibiza.

Not prior to the three-month pause imposed on soccer by the coronavirus pandemic, that is.

Once the restart had gotten underway, though, Puig finally made his mark in Setien’s best-laid plans.

Featuring in bit-cameos over Barça’s first three matches back, he played the full 90 at Celta Vigo and almost the entirety against Atletico Madrid a few days later.

By the last fixture of the season’s dead rubber against Alaves, with the title already ceded to Real Madrid, Puig had established his berth in the center of the park and gave Setien Champions League food-for-thought with a splendid pair of assists.

Becoming the youngest player since Thiago Alcantara to manage that feat, Puig is still yet to feature on the continent for his boyhood club.

Dropped 24 hours before kick off on December’s away trip to Inter Milan, he was also an unused substitute for the last 16 first leg showdown with Napoli in February.

Yet if selected on Saturday for the decider, hearing the iconic theme and running on the hallowed Camp Nou turf with the starred-ball emblem on his sleeve would signify the realization of another dream for the 20-year-old.

As part of their Thursday cover spread, Mundo Deportivo have reproduced a heartwarming photo of a six-year-old Riqui in Paris with his father and brother, as they celebrated the Blaugrana’s second European Cup win in 2006.

The milestone sparked his love of the competition, with the Puigs never missing a home game in it through their youngest son’s rise from fan to academy prospect and now first team star.

It has always been their tradition to meet in the same restaurant near the stadium post-match, and perhaps at the weekend, it will be completed with Master Riqui – who was also in attendance to watch Barça’s last UCL triumph in Berlin in 2015 – having just put on his own masterclass to see off the Neapolitans.