Blog

Nico Gonzalez is a Spanish player who plays for the La Liga club Valencia as a midfielder. He came to Los Che as the academy product as well as the professional player of one of the nation’s big clubs, Barcelona.

Active in the senior squad since 2021, Gonzalez, so far has made 33 appearances in his club career scoring on three occasions. The young adult made headlines in 2021 when he extended his contract with Barcelona with half a billion-dollar buyout clause.

Like several other midfielders, Gonzalez has also been considered the successor of the Blaugrana’s veteran DM, Sergio Busquets in light of the distinct promising talents that he showed in his youth career. In fact, he even played Barcelona’s opening game of the 2021-22 La Liga season coming in as a substitute for one of their integral stars.

Nico’s contract with Barcelona runs until the year 2026, June 30. He, however, is currently playing for the 2001 Champions League finalist, Valencia on a season-long loan. Since joining the six-time La Liga Champions, he has played in six of their matches scoring in one.

Nico Gonzalez Career As A Young Kid

Gonzalez’s first-ever club was the local, Montaneros, which he joined in 2009 aged seven. He remained with the team until 2013.

After spending four years in Montaneros, Gonzalez went on to join Barcelona in 2013 at age 11. The scouts had spotted him in a friendly match in Galicia.

After coming to Barcelona, he started playing for the Under 12s B team and later led the squad to win the 2013/14 championship. The titles followed during his tenure with the Under 14s B, Under 15s A, and Under 16s A.

He made his debut for Barca B at age 17. It was on the last match day of the 2018/2019 season. The following season, Gonzalez appeared in six UEFA Youth League games for Barcelone’s B team starting from minute one. In the meantime, he also made it to the squad list for the Segunda B playoffs. In that league tournament, Nico was in 18 games during which he found the net three times.

In the 2020/21 season, Gonzalez led Barca B to secure a place in Primera RFEF (via promotion) and subsequent qualifications for the playoffs. That season, Nico played in a total of 23 games with 16 starts.

Nico Gonzalez Senior Career; Barcelona And Valencia

Nico started playing alongside Barcelona’s main team in the 2021/22 season. That season, the six-foot-two inches tall midfielder played 27 La Lila games for Barca’s A team during which he scored two goals and gave one assist.

Gonzalez’s debut match for Barcelona’s senior squad was on August 15, 2021, in the club’s league match against Real Sociedad. He came on for the last ten minutes but picked up a yellow card sometime after entering the field.

From then till his move to Valencia, Gonzalez, in addition to the league matches, made ten appearances in the club friendlies, 4 in the UEFA Champions League, 1 in Copa del Rey, 1 in Supercopa de Espana, and 3 in UEFA Europa League.

Nico moved to Valencia in mid-2022 on loan from Barcelona. Since then he has played in the Southeastern club’s 12 La Liga games and scored one goal. His first appearance for Valencia was on August 14, 2022, in the La Liga fixture against Girona.

Gonzalez’s last appearance for his current club Valencia was on Nov 10, 2022. He featured in the Los Che’s league match against Real Betis; the game’s outcome saw the former emerging victorious by 3-0.

Nico In The Spanish National Team

As of this writing, Nico Gonzalez is yet to make his international senior debut. He though has been a part of the Spain U17 team making seven appearances for them. He likewise has also played five games for the Spain U21 squad.

Nico Gonzalez In The Transfer Market

His current market value hovers around €14 million. It reached the highest €25 million in the summer of 2022.

During that window, Gonzalez got offers from several heavyweights in Europe. Among the interested parties, the big names were Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Ajax among others.

However, Gonzalez made pundits talk when he rejected all the advances, something that the midfielder admitted in an interview later. According to Miquel Blazquez, Nico always had a dream to represent his boyhood club, Barcelona.

The Dutch superhouse, Ajax had even offered Gonzalez direct entry into their first team with the club’s former player, Ronald Koeman, too, as one of his main supporters.

Nico Gonzalez Early Life

Gonzalez was born Nicolas Gonzalez lglesias on January 3, 2002 in A Coruna, Spain. He is the son of former Spanish midfielder, Fran, Francisco Javier Gonzalez Perez, an ex-midfielder for the Spanish club, Deportivo. Gonzalez’s father, Fran was part of Deportivo’s team that won their first-ever La Liga in 2000. Making his La Liga debut in the year 1988, Fran spent his entire playing career with Deportivo de La Coruna until 2005 with 550 appearances in total.