Marques Bids Emotional Farewell to Barcelona After 12 Years

After 12 years in blaugrana, Marques has closed the book on his Barcelona story with an emotional farewell message that reads like a love letter to the club that raised him.

The midfielder, who joined Barça at the age of eight and eventually broke into the first team with his senior debut against Mallorca in February 2026, chose Instagram as the stage for his goodbye. The tone was clear from the first line: this was not a simple transfer announcement, but the end of a childhood dream.

He reflected on a journey that stretched from La Masia pitches to Camp Nou lights, stressing how every step – and every setback – had shaped him.

“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, before listing the grind that built his career: every season, every training session, every match, every trip, every victory. Then came the other side of elite football: “the toughest moments, the injuries, and the times filled with doubt and suffering.”

Those scars, he said, became lessons. Marques underlined that he leaves “with the peace of mind of having given my all” and with the satisfaction of having fulfilled the dream he chased for more than a decade: making his debut with the Barça first team, something he “never imagined” when he first walked through the doors as a child.

He described those moments with the senior side as “unforgettable, unique,” memories he insists he will carry with him forever.

The goodbye message was also a roll call of gratitude. Marques thanked coaches, team-mates – “many of whom have become great friends” – physios, doctors, and club staff, crediting each of them with helping to shape both the player and the person he has become. He then turned to his inner circle, singling out his parents, sisters, partner, and friends for their unconditional support and for helping turn his dream into reality.

“I have worn this badge on my chest with great pride all these years,” he wrote, “and I always will.”

The most striking part of his message came when he addressed the manner of his exit. Marques did not hide the emotional cost of the decision. Leaving, he admitted, “hurts.” He called the timing “unexpected” and confessed that this was not how he had imagined saying goodbye to “the club of my life.”

Yet he framed his departure as a necessary step for his own development, stressing that his choice comes from love for the club and from what he has learned over more than a decade inside Barça’s system: to understand and respect the decisions taken along the way.

There was no bitterness in his final lines, only reverence. “Barça has given me everything,” he wrote, before one last cascade of thanks – for helping him grow, for teaching and challenging him, for allowing him to live a dream at the club he calls the club of his life.

He ended with a simple, defiant sign-off that underlined where his heart remains, regardless of what comes next in his career.

“Long live Barca, always.”