November 7 – During the 2010-11 season, FC Barcelona was the greatest team in world football. Under the guidance of La Masia graduate, Pep Guardiola, and prompted by the GOAT, Lionel Messi, another product of the famed academy, the Catalans were unstoppable, but then, the production line faltered.
This season the club’s hallowed youth academy is back!
The first team is nine points clear in La Liga after just 12 games having recently thrashed their greatest rivals Real Madrid 4-0 on Madrid’s own turf. They have scored 40 goals in those 12 league games, or 19 more than next-best Real Madrid. And this success is being driven by home-grown players leading club president, Joan Laporta to say “(Hansi) Flick understood perfectly what our value is, our jewel: La Masia.”
A majority of the 25 players who have played minutes in La Liga this season (13 of 25) have been developed at La Masia, including Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi and Marc Bernal, all 17, and fellow teenagers Hector Fort and Sergi Dominguez. Another six of those 13 home-grown are aged 23 or under.
In their European game a fortnight ago against Bayern Munich they thrashed the German giants 4-1. Last night they hammered Red Star Belgrade in Serbia 5-2.
No fewer than six of their starters that night were products of La Masia in the Bayern game, with two more coming on as subs. They were Iñaki Peña, age 25 (GK), Pau Cubarsí, 17 (CD), Alejandro Balde, 21 (LB), Marc Casadó, 21 (DM), Fermín López, 21 (CM), and Lamine Yamal, 17 (AMR). On top of that their home-grown subs were Ansu Fati, 21 (AML), and Gavi, 20 (CM).
The original La Masia was built in 1702 long before FC Barcelona’s formation, however, the old farmhouse carried a mystique that was revered throughout the club.
The new facility built in 2011 at a cost of $25 million is considered state-of-the-art for youth development but the club seemingly moved away from home-grown players to established stars post-Guardiola, and the financial commitment required to keep the facility humming was questioned.
Now with players like Yamal, who has recently been valued at $163 million, the long-term investment is paying off handsomely.
There is also that special bond between player and club as Pep Guardiola once said: “The player who has passed through La Masia has something different to the rest, it’s a plus that only comes from having competed in a Barcelona shirt from the time you were a child.”
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1732780101labto1732780101ofdlr1732780101owedi1732780101sni@o1732780101fni1732780101