He first played for CF Damm, and at age nine, he faced an FC Barcelona youth team for the first time, scoring all three goals in a 3-1 win. After the game, the Barcelona coach approached Jesus and tried to recruit his son, but Jesus shut down the request, thinking Vazquez was too young. Vazquez continued to play for CF Damm the rest of that season and the next, and the focus was on fun rather than winning. When the Barcelona coach sought him out again at age 11, Jesus left the decision to his son. “Finally, I took this step forwards and I said to my dad, ‘OK, we go,’” says Vazquez, who played striker back then. “It was [a] big decision because with Barcelona you have to win all the time. I feel the pressure that I was going to a team that you have to show every time that you are the best.”

It was with Barcelona’s youth academy teams that Vazquez learned to deliver the ball forward as quickly as possible to otherworldly talents like Messi. “We were taking control of everything, but because we are not that fast with the movement like Messi, we have to try to be fast, controlling the ball and giving the ball fast to the players that are faster,” Vazquez explains.

He fulfilled a childhood dream in 2008 when he made his first appearance with FC Barcelona’s first team, coming off the bench in the last 20 minutes during a 2-2 tie. “I will remember always because I had to play in front with Ronaldinho and [Samuel] Eto’o. I was like, ‘OK, wow,’” Vazquez says, grinning and wide-eyed. He was 18 years old and shaking like a leaf from the nerves, but managed to settle into his game after a minute. Vazquez got another opportunity with the team that season, but the following year, he badly injured his right knee. It was the first of two disappointments that eventually brought him to Toronto.