Thiago was one of the youth academy’s most promising talents –a player who shot up through the various youth team categories. As a Youth team player, he featured for Guardiola in the Barça B team and his creativity imagination and competitive attitude made him stand out. Eventually, two and a half years ago, he made his first team debut and since then the boss has nurtured his extraordinary talent to the point that he is now one of the first team squad stars.

Fisrt match at San Moix

On May 17th 2009, with the league title already won and with the Rome final just 10 days away, Pep Guardiola called up Thiago for the trip to Mallorca as he gave some of the first team regulars a rest. Thiago came on for the last 15 minutes to make his debut and from then on he became an increasingly familiar part of the first team training sessions at the Ciutat Esportiva.

Debut goal against Racing

After his debut, Guardiola refused to rush things though and he played just one league game and one Spanish Cup match the following season, with a debut goal against Racing in February 2009. Last season he began to make more regular appearances for the team.

Full first team squad member

This season he became a full first team squad member and has made a great start to the campaign, debuting against Villarreal and featuring in eight of the team’s nine league games, starting seven of them to confirm his promise and reveal himself as another of the team’s success stories.