The 'Barça's Robben' who is making an impact at Girona

GironaCarles Pérez was Girona's final signing this summer. Brought in a couple of days after the deadline, after he was released from Celta just minutes before the market window closed, almost at dawn, his is a signing for immediate impact: he has actively contributed to the positive energy accompanying the Girona team in the last few matchdays, in which they have won three of the four matches played. The former Barça player has scored two goals in three matches and hopes to play an important role again this Friday in Albacete's visit to Montilivi (8:30 PM, LaLigaTV Hypermotion). The FIFA virus punishes the red-and-whites, who will have half a dozen players scattered across different national teams, among them the starters Junior, Asprilla, and Vanat.

To reach this moment of joy, the winger from Granollers had to go through tough times first. “Sometimes in football, you aren’t with the right people and you take the wrong steps; that is what has happened to me over the last two years. Lately, I had been progressing in a way that wasn't right, but I believe that coming to Girona, both for the style of play and for the mentality and the goal, which is to get promoted to the First Division, is the right step,” explains the footballer, who does not hide the bitterness of some recent seasons that have placed him in a corner of the footballing showcase that not long ago was shining, with goals at the Camp Nou and a spell at Roma where he even lifted a title.

Formed at Vilanova de la Roca, Damm, Espanyol, and La Masia, where he was coached by the current Girona manager, Quique Álvarez, in the Cadet A team, Ernesto Valverde had him debut for the first team of the 'blaugrana' at the end of the 2018-19 League at Ipurua, where he came on for Malcom in the 72nd minute. He wore the number 43 shirt, was left-footed, and showed potential. They called him the Barça Robben. “I have fulfilled the childhood dream of every Barça kid. It has been unforgettable,” he noted, emotional. The progression continued the following year, first with Valverde himself and later with Quique Setién, who replaced the Extremaduran coach after a traumatic defeat in the Spanish Super Cup. The Granollers native even debuted as a goalscorer in a thrashing of Betis (5-2) in which he shared the attack with Rafinha Alcántara and Antoine Griezmann. Those were different times.

The spotlight, however, never fully pointed at him. That night of his first goal, which coincided with his first start, was also the first night for Ansu Fati among the big names. Life’s ironies, it was Pérez who handed him the baton. Both would still share another magical moment at the Giuseppe Meazza at the end of 2019, when they scored in the victory against Inter (1-2) in the Champions League group stage. In Milan, in his Champions League debut, Pérez secured a full first-team salary because he had already reached seven matches with at least thirty minutes played. He was touching the sky and could never have imagined that it would evaporate so quickly: even today, he has not played another match in the top European competition. The one in Milan was the first and also, for the moment, the last.

A month and a half later, everything accelerated and the player packed his bags for Roma. “I don't understand what happened: either Barça needed money or there is something else that escapes me. I think I took advantage of the opportunities as much as I could. It was a surprise that they decided to do without me, I consider that I didn't deserve it,” he claimed months later. In Italy he would stay until 2022 and would win the Conference League there. He was coached by José Mourinho. “He is very close, he has made me a better footballer,” he defined.

A minor incident

Pérez would seek more minutes at Celta, but after two seasons he left on loan, first to Bordalás's Getafe and last year to Aris Thessaloniki, where his figure began to fade and where he was more in the news for off-pitch events than for his performance on the field: in the summer of 2025, several media outlets reported a dog attack, which bit his testicles and sent him to the hospital. "I had the bad luck of suffering a bite on the inside of my leg while trying to separate my dog from another during a minor and unexpected incident," the Catalan posted. He received six stitches.

Without a spot at Celta, Pérez did not hesitate when he received the offer from a Girona that, in his opinion, "continues to be a First Division team." "I have come to help, and what better way than to contribute with goals. But as I always say, the most important thing is the team, that it wins and is high up in the standings," he replied after the triumph in Cadiz in an individual performance that confirms the feeling he has about the Montilivi club. "I am very happy. Here I can explode and be the Carles I was... well, that I am. The Carles that I still am," he defends, amidst laughter.