Bartra 15

Marc Bartra was born in Sant Jaume dels Domenys, Tarragona, on January 15^th 1991. He came to Barcelona to play football when he was still very young, joining RCD Espanyol for the 2001/02 season, before moving to La Masia when he was just 11 years old.

Since then, he has risen through the Club’s academy system, standing out as an elegant, ball playing centre half. Starting out in the Aleví A team, he moved through Infantil B and A, Cadet B and A, and the Youth A and B teams. For the 2009/10 season, he joined the Barça B team squad after having played for them whilst still a Youth Team A squad player. That same season he was called up by Pep Guardiola to make his debut with the first team against Atletico Madrid in the league, though Pep used him at right back rather than his more normal central position.

He continued on Guardiola’s radar and whilst he still played with the B team, he was also called up for other league , Cup and European games with the first team and was at Wembley when the team won the Champions League in2011 and at the Vicente Calderon for the 2011/12 Spanish Cup final. Bartra officially joined the first team squad on July 1^st 2012.

A year before that, he scored his first ever goal for the first team on May 21^st 2011 in the last league game of the season against Malaga, but he has been more of  a regular in the B team over the last two seasons, making 51 second division appearances and scoring 2 goals.

Bartra has represented Spain at Under 18s, under 19s – with whom he took part in the European  Championships –and the Under 20s, captaining them in a World Cup. He is also a regular in the Catalan national team.

2011/12 FC Barcelona B
2012/13 FC Barcelona