The lifts in the hotel in Surakarta where Spain set up camp for the duration of the first round were put to particularly good use by the players as they went up and down from one floor to another. Despite keeping his head down among his team-mates – and it has to be said, having his name embossed on his slide sandals was somewhat of a give-away – forward Marc Guiu would invariably be picked out by other guests in at the hotel. The reaction was always immediate, with members of the public looking to see if the ‘star’ was there as soon as they realised that they had come across members of the Spain squad.

Often, he would be left in peace, but when called upon, he would happily do the decent thing and flash a smile, even posing for photos, before getting on with his day and maintaining his sense of calm. And that is the new reality in Indonesia for this very special 17-year-old who, unlike most of the rest of the players at the World Cup, has already been thrust into the spotlight.

If he is on his way to becoming a household name, it is not merely down to the fact that he has come through the various age groups at Barcelona – it is primarily because of what happened on 22 October. It was his second time on the bench for the first team, on this occasion to face Athletic Bilbao in the league. With the score locked at 0-0, and his more famous team-mates seemingly lacking inspiration, coach Xavi decided to go for broke and send on the teenage attacker. All it took was 35 seconds… the youngster got round the back of the defence and scored the winning goal, before wheeling away to celebrate, his face a mixture of delight and incredulity.