Outside90’s James Woodman continues our look at the promise land that is FC Barcelona’s youth academy.
In 2010, all three of the Ballon d’Or finalists were La Masia graduates (Xavi, Iniesta and Messi), a feat that had never been achieved together. In Spain’s triumphant World Cup team in 2010, the team included eight graduates of the renowned academy.
La Masia: Prodigy Factory (Part One)
In fact, Spain’s success on the international level is often credited to the high-class training of La Masia’s local talent. In 2000, former Barcelona manager Louis van Gaal famously said he wanted to win the Champions League with 11 home-grown players. Nine years later, the Catalan outfit won the 2009 Champions League final with eight home-grown players in the starting line up.
In November 2012, history was made. In a match against Levante, Dani Alves’ 14th minute injury saw him replaced by Martin Montoya. From the 13th to 75th minute of that match, all eleven players were La Masia graduates.
Best prospects
- Sergi Samper (21): Being a central midfielder at Barcelona is not easy, but Samper’s impact has been felt. However, his slow progress up the ladder might see him move away to see game time..
- Seung Woo Lee (18): Dubbed the ‘Korean Messi’, this starlet was unable to play for Barca for a while due to FIFA restrictions, but is now set to make an impact.
- Alen Halilovic (19): On loan at Sporting de Gijon this season, and said to be the next Modric, he looks like an absolute sensation and could be an important cog in Barca’s first team in the years to come.
- Munir El Haddadi (20): This pacey striker has already made an impact by scoring on his first-team debut. He could be a great force in the future.
https://twitter.com/barcastuff/status/742383593532579840
So that’s the story of La Masia. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows as it seems to be. With various controversies with respect to recruitments in the last few years (one of which resulted in a transfer ban), many say that La Masia is in a slow decline.
Valid criticism? It could be, especially seeing as we haven’t seen a Messi or an Iniesta come through in a long time. And slowly, many players have begun look for other clubs, tired of waiting for their chance in the first team.
First hand examples are Jean Marie Dongou and Adama Traore, who are already out. Once promised to be world beaters, they seem to have fizzled out into run-of-the-mill talent. A player like the aforementioned Samper, who is one of the best players at Barca B, needs first-team football to reach his potential.
With so many heavyweights in the team already, a conundrum is presented to academy graduates. Players like Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara and Bojan Krkic have moved away in pursuit of more first team football. With extra pressure from big spending clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, world class players have to brought into the club every year.
In today’s frenetic world of football, patience is a virtue. Fans demand success, club bosses also want immediate results and youth does not yield such results as quickly as desired.
So is investing in youth really sustainable these days?In the short run, probably not. In the long run, yes. After all, legends aren’t made overnight.
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