Marques Bids Emotional Farewell to Barça After 12 Years

After 12 years growing up in the shadow of Camp Nou, Marques has closed the chapter on his Barcelona story with a raw, heartfelt farewell that lays bare just how much the club has meant to him.

The midfielder, who joined Barça at the age of eight and eventually realised his dream of debuting for the first team, took to Instagram to say goodbye, thanking almost everyone who has crossed his path in blaugrana colours.

“After 12 years, the time has come to say goodbye to the club that has watched me grow up since I was eight,” he wrote, reflecting on a journey that has taken him from La Masia hopeful to senior debutant.

He spoke of seasons and training sessions, matches and trips, victories and, crucially, the darker side of the game: injuries, doubts, and suffering.

Those setbacks, he said, shaped him as much as the triumphs. “All of them taught me valuable lessons and helped me get to where I am today. I leave with the peace of mind of having given my all, and with the feeling of having fulfilled a dream I fought for over so many years: making my debut with the Barça first team.”

That debut arrived against Mallorca in February 2026, the culmination of more than a decade of work inside the club’s famed academy system. For a boy who walked through the doors at eight, stepping onto the pitch in the first-team shirt was a moment he “never imagined” would actually come.

From there, his message turned into a long list of thanks. Coaches. Team-mates – “many of whom have become great friends”. Physios and doctors. Staff members. Everyone who, in his words, “has been by my side over these past 12 years” and helped mould both the footballer and the person.

He then widened the circle. Family, especially his parents and sisters. His partner. Friends who “supported and stood by me unconditionally, helping to make this dream a reality”. For all of them, and for the badge he says he has worn “with great pride all these years”, there was clear gratitude.

Yet beneath the pride, there is pain. Marques did not hide it.

“I won’t deny that it hurts to leave,” he admitted. The timing, he said, was “unexpected” and not how he had imagined saying goodbye to “the club of my life”.

He framed his departure as a necessary step for his development, but also as an act rooted in love for Barça and in the understanding he has gained over time of how decisions are made at the top level.

“If I am doing this, it is because I truly love this club; over these 12 years, I have also learned to understand and respect the decisions that have been made along the way,” he wrote, a line that underlines both disappointment and acceptance.

He signed off with a final tribute that read like a closing curtain call on a childhood dream.

“Barça has given me everything. Thank you for these 12 years. Thank you for helping me grow, for teaching me, for challenging me, and for allowing me to live a dream – at the club of my life – that I will remember forever. Long live Barca, always.”

A boyhood prospect leaves with only one first-team debut to his name, but with a lifetime of Barça imprinted on him. Where he goes next will define his career. What he leaves behind is 12 years of a club that clearly still feels like home.