Pablo Páez Gavira, who is commonly known as ‘Gavi’, was born in Los Palacios y Villafranca near Seville. He began his football journey at Real Betis where he spent two seasons at the Luis del Sol training complex, situated in close proximity to the Benito Villamarín stadium. Gavi is a technically gifted and combative midfielder with a winning attitude. In the 2015/16 season, he moved to FC Barcelona and represented the blaugranes at the U12 level before rapidly progressing through the youth categories to reach the U19 squad. After impressing, he debuted for Barça B and was included with the first-team players in the preseason of 2020 under coach Ronald Koeman.

Gavi’s journey did not halt there. He made his La Liga debut for Barça in August 2021, becoming the fourth youngest player ever to do so, at the age of 17 years and 24 days. In October 2022, he was awarded the Kopa Trophy by the renowned magazine France Football for being the best player of the year under 21. His performances for Barça earned him a place in Spain’s national squad, and he made history by being the youngest player to win an international cap for Spain at the age of 17 years and 62 days in October 2021, in the UEFA Nations League semi-final against Italy.

In the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Gavi became the youngest player to score and play in the tournament for Spain. He scored and was named man of the match in his team’s opening fixture against Costa Rica. Gavi, now 18 years old, signed a new contract with Barça in the summer of 2022, which confirmed his position in the first-team squad.