Marc Guiu and Héctor Fort's penyista pasts

Marc Guiu has become the latest sensation from La Masia to make his debut with the men's first team, but did you know that he started playing football at a supporters' club? At the age of 5, Marc began playing with the Penya Barcelonista de Sant Celoni, where they still have photographs of his time there and are very proud to have had him from a very young age.

But he is not the only player recently being called up to the first team who comes from a supporters' club. The other is Héctor Fort, who currently plays for U19A and kicked his first balls at the Penya Barcelonista Anguera. While they await his first team debut, the FC Barcelona penya is very proud indeed of the progress being made by their former player:

Barcelona supporters' clubs, promoters of sports for young players

Marc Guiu and Héctor Fort are just two examples of how penyes, in addition to supporting all of Barça's teams, also promote the club's values through sports for young players. The most well-known case is that of the supporters' clubs that are part of the Agrupació de Futbol de Clubs i Penyes del FC Barcelona, which, with 200 teams and almost 3,000 players, have been ensuring that young Barça supporters get to do sport since 1956. But there are dozens of penyes in many towns worldwide that have teams in both football and other sports, such as handball and futsal, playing every weekend all around the country, and perhaps they have the next Barça stars in their ranks!