As Pedri’s Prowess Goes Global, His Mind Hardly Strays From Home

Hailing from the Canary Islands, where his family owns and operates a pub, Pedri’s skills have earned worldwide renown, and they’re on full display at the World Cup.

A pub and a peña. That’s what the grandfather of Pedro González López passed down to his family on the island of Tenerife. And without one or the other, González López may not be the Spanish national team star known around the world as Pedri.

At the pub, which Pedri’s father has since turned into a full-fledged restaurant called Tasca Fernando, the family hosts the Peña Barcelonista de Tenerife-Tegueste, one of more than 1,200 official Barcelona fan clubs around the world. Pedri grew up watching Barcelona games with the peña at the restaurant on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands that sit off the coast of Morocco. Now, they watch him star for Barcelona.

“My grandfather founded the supporters club and always put on one of the Barça matches there—and now everyone goes there to see me,” Pedri says in Spanish. “For me it is a huge thrill that the people of my town are supporting me like that.”

The restaurant is also the locale where Pedri’s parents met when they both started out working there—his father still runs the bar and his mother still runs the kitchen. So it’s safe to say that not only might Pedri the soccer superstar not exist without the restaurant, but Pedri, himself, too.

“I have lots of memories there,” Pedri says. “I played soccer downstairs in a room with my cousins and friends, but we had to be careful not to break anything. I spent a lot of hours in the restaurant and I have a lot of love for it because of my family.”

Germany’s David Raum struggles to keep up with Pedri in Spain’s 1–1 draw in Group E :: Luca Bruno/AP

From breaking lamps in the Tasca Fernando basement to breaking records on the pitch for Spain, the 20-year-old’s ascent has been meteoric. At 16, Pedri was a regular in the Spanish second division for Las Palmas, the biggest soccer club in the Canary Islands. Less than a month after his professional debut, Barcelona had already signed him for an initial fee of €5 million plus add ons—a deal that looks absurd considering his current release clause after signing a new contract is set at €1 billion.

Within a month of his Barcelona debut in September 2020, Pedri had become a regular in the Barcelona lineup alongside Lionel Messi as he embarked on a record-setting, trophy-laden year. In his first season for Barcelona in 2020–21, Pedri made 73 appearances for club and country, more than any player in the world that year.

After winning the Copa del Rey, Pedri went on to become Spain’s youngest-ever player at a Euros, was named the Euro 2020 Young Player of the Tournament, won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics and collected the Golden Boy award and Kopa Trophy as the best player under 21. Within a year, Pedri had gone from being a relative unknown to being heralded as one of the world’s brightest stars at just 18.

And yet, when asked whether he could imagine being a member of a World Cup team, Pedri shakes his head and laughs. “No, of course not. It was impossible to imagine getting here and it's incredible to have the opportunity to be called for the World Cup. It’s a luxury for me.”

Pedri fondly recalls the triumphant 2010 Spain team as his first World Cup memory. Just 7 at the time, Pedri and his family watched the final from a hotel in Tenerife that had installed a big screen for locals to watch the game as La Furia Roja lifted the World Cup trophy in South Africa.

“From this, everything followed,” Pedri says.

That legendary team featured another Canary Islands hero in Pedro, Pedri’s childhood hero Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets, a current World Cup teammate in Qatar. On the eve of his 20th birthday last week, fresh off a training session with Busquets in Qatar, Pedri met Iniesta for the first time. Starstruck and at a loss of words, Pedri embraced his idol in a meeting of Spain’s golden past and starry future.

Pedri is at the core of Spain’s rising generation / Adidas

Even as a global sensation, Pedri has so far avoided the trappings of fame and stardom. Pundits, coaches and teammates all praise him for his calm, composure and wisdom beyond his years, something he credits to his island upbringing. His parents still live in Tegueste and run the restaurant, which will turn 50 this month, and when he returns home, Pedri says little has changed for him despite his celebrity.

“People from the town are different,” Pedri says. “They have seen me all my life and there are many people who, instead of asking you for a photo or whatever, they greet you. And it’s because they are not fans, so to speak, as much as they are friends and acquaintances.”

As much as Pedri is putting the Canary Islands on the map, the Canarian culture has shaped him into the free-flowing maestro with the ability to turn the pitch into his canvas. The midfielder is often up against competition bigger and stronger than him and nearly twice his age, but he has technical savvy and inimitable vision crafted in the Canary Islands to thank and inspire.

“Soccer in the Canary Islands is different, especially because you play a lot on the beach, in the street, which I think is where the feeling of creativity is born, where you have fun and you do what you want,” Pedri says. “There’s no typecast [player] and I think from that, Canarian football is based on a kind of art.”

Pedri now lives with his older brother, Fer, in Barcelona, while his parents make trips to the mainland throughout the year. While his family members have a no-interview policy as they prefer to stay out of the media spotlight, a recent Barça documentary dives into Canarian life, showcasing the restaurant, Pedri’s family and the stunning island backdrop that features a volcano surrounded by subtropical forests.

In one of the opening scenes, Pedri and his brother search for a spot by the beach and reminisce about throwing pebbles at the crabs along the seawall. And when you see the crabs scurry past, they vaguely resemble Pedri in midfield, side-shuffling and sidestepping defenders with vision that seemingly extends behind his head. In Spain’s opening games in Qatar against Costa Rica and Germany, full highlight reels of Pedri single handedly gliding through defenses and hitting outrageous passes are racking up thousands of views on YouTube.

And all the while, he makes it look enjoyable, almost like a pickup game among friends—except it happens to be on the world’s biggest stage.

Just 20, Pedri is looked upon to help lead Spain at the World Cup :: Julio Cortez/AP

“Above all, I try to have fun,” Pedri says. “That is a characteristic that Canarians have—they like to enjoy the moment in soccer or whatever, whether it is kicking a can in the street or for a soccer game. And that is the greatest lesson that the Canary Islands have given me.”

With Spain and Barcelona, Pedri has added a few friends to the glorified pick-up games, none brighter than 18-year-old midfield phenom Gavi. If Pedri is the rudder of this Spanish armada— how he performs, Spain seems to follow—then Gavi is the sails, pushing La Furia Roja along thanks to a relentless energy that often seems unable to be properly harnessed. The duo was the driving force of a 7–0 victory over Costa Rica in their World Cup opener, where Spain became the first team to complete 1,000 passes in a 90-minute game at the World Cup.

In Qatar, Spain became the first European side in 60 years to start two teenagers at a World Cup with Pedri and Gavi in midfield. Gavi succeeded Pedri as the Golden Boy winner this year and became the youngest World Cup goalscorer since Pelé in 1958.

The duo has given Spain hope for the future as the third-youngest squad in Qatar (behind Ghana and the U.S.), but its prodigies are so prolific that it has the country thinking about a second World Cup title in 12 years. If it does indeed happen, Pedri knows where he’ll go to celebrate—and it involves a small, family-run restaurant in Tegueste.

“It would be really crazy [in Tegueste], the stage that they would set up and everything,” Pedri says. “I would love to win it if I have the opportunity, and go there and celebrate it with the people.”