Pau Cubarsi's home village in Catalonia didn't have a football pitch
He stood out in grassroots football, being picked up by Girona then Barcelona
Spain's defensive pillar has two clean sheets and counting at FIFA World Cup 2026™
Considered one of the best defenders in the world at only 19 years old, 's Pau Cubarsi has chalked off another milestone in his prodigious career with his debut. The teenager has started La Roja’s two Group H matches so far, having come to North America off the back of a club season in which he became the second-youngest player to make 100 appearances for Barcelona, only trailing Lamine Yamal.
His journey to the top of the global game began in the tiny village of Estanyol in the province of Girona in the north east of Spain. Estanyol had fewer than 200 inhabitants, and neither a football pitch nor a school, so Cubarsi was initially educated in the neighbouring village of Vilablareix, where his parents, Robert and Gloria signed him up for the local football club.
Jana Redondo, who belonged to the same cohort, remembers Cubarsi “playing in defence but getting the ball and running the length of the field to score”. “We always won the league thanks to Pau,” she adds.
Redondo and Cubarsi were part of the club’s most junior team, and though now a defender with Girona’s women’s side, Redondo still returns to Vilablareix to coach the club’s youngest age group, many of whom dream of emulating Cubarsi.
She sometimes played as a goalkeeper and there was one occasion when she cried after conceding a goal. Cubarsi consoled her before winning the ball, charging upfield to score and then racing back to celebrate with her. “Lots of people have told me about that,” Redondo says.
At Vilablareix, Cubarsi is remembered as being an excellent team player as well as that rare species of child who kept his head up and looked forward when moving with the ball, rather than down. His declared ambition was to play for Barcelona, with Lionel Messi and Neymar being his heroes.
Redondo recalls: “We went to the same school and he never thought he was better than anyone. If anything, he kept a low profile.” She used to watch Barcelona matches Cubarsi’s house with friends and she is now proud to follow his World Cup exploits on TV – including those clean sheets against Cabo Verde and Saudi Arabia.
The centre-back eventually joined Barcelona's youth ranks when he was 11 in 2018, following a spell training with Girona. He linked up with Yamal and current Girona defender Gibert Jordana. “Pau was unbelievable,” recalls Jordana. “He was so good. It was almost impossible to get past him – you needed a 2v1 to take him on. He was very vocal, a leader. He was also more driven or determined than many players that age.”
Jordana has not forgotten his old team-mate’s strength in the tackle and he also remembers “a great guy who was quiet off the field but a different person whenever he stepped on to the pitch”. Those qualities have enabled Cubarsi to play 128 times for the Catalan club already as well as earn 14 caps for Spain. He also won the gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games with Spain.
One area where Cubarsi did not quite have the edge over his peers was video games – because he didn’t have a console at home. “He could only play when we were at someone else’s house or at a tournament,” explains Jordana. “He was the worst.”
Jordana also enjoys seeing Yamal perform on the world stage with the same virtuosity as he did in the Barça academy. “He was already doing what he's doing now," he adds. “He really stood out. He could do whatever he liked with the ball and could beat everyone. It was street football. I'm sure they'll both do very well at the World Cup because have a brilliant team and they are two key players.“
Sources: FIFA Official
