In recent times, there have been a lot of doubts about the future and professional output of the popular FC Barcelona Youths football academy called "La Masia." The academy have been revered as the one of the best in the world if not the best when it comes to grooming young talents into superstars.
With the emergence of Joseph Bartomeu in 2014 as the Club's president, following the resignation of Sandro Rosell due to the Neymah transfer saga, the incumbent president has severally been accused of not putting much attention to the Barcelona football academy. Thus, it's been worrisome to Barcelona faithfuls like me, since most of the success of the club for years now can always be traced to the impact of the academy.
As the likes of Messi, Busquet, Pique, Suarez and other players of Barcelona are aging, there is a rising concern about the future of the club, and from my observation, the la Masia youth academy will indeed play an instrumental role as usual to keep the club at the top. For some time now, not so many new faces have been able to make it from the academy to the first team, and it makes me wonder what the incumbent president and his executive members have been doing about it.
It's worthy of mention that joining the La Masia academy isn't an easy task. It most times starts from Barcelona scout being able to spot young talents from all over the world, just to pick the best of legs amongst these young talents. Age is also one of the major factors that is Paramount in the selection of young players for the academy, within the age of 6-11. Statistics have also shown that the majority of kids picked for the academy are from Spain and the Catalonia region, where the academy is situated.
Even though getting an opportunity to join the academy appears a bit not easy, there is always a possibility of attending soccer camps hosted by Barcelona. The club normally holds these camps all over the world and in the United States as well. The academy which was created in 1979 was meant to groom young talented football players, and to an extent a school in the academic sense to enable the players grow mentally while they learn the Barcelona system of football.
With the hope that some day, they too will have the opportunity to wear the Barcelona first team Jersey and play in front of 90,000 fans at the camp nou, these young talents immerse themselves in the philosophy of the club to be the best any team will wish for. Great living players like Lionel Messi, of course Andres Iniesta and even Xavi Hernandez all grew and developed at La Masia, or the "farmhouse" as it's nicknamed.
Any time the fc Barcelona football academy is mentioned, there is always a man whose name stands out, and that's Johan Cruyff. He was the man that proposed the youth training center and it's philosophical development system, which he himself was a product of from the Ajax academy. The academy trains about 300 young players. Some of them live in their own housing in Barcelona, while some others are houses in La Masia. The youngest players in the academy are 6 years old.
The incumbent Manchester city coach Pep Guadiola who also happens to be a product of the academy played a very pivotal role in the development of the system whilst still the Barcelona team B coach. He had pressed for better facilities from the authorities, and he also helped get back the team B into the Segunda division. He is already instilling his Barcelona football philosophy into the Manchester city team in The English premier league, and it's only the blind that will say he is not seeing its impact in English football.
The dominance and success of Barcelona football club for many years now can always be traced to the building up of a single style of play. Young and upcoming players are trained to adopt and adapt to the philosophy of total football, which enable players to switch from one position to another during the game. And also to the concept of one and two touch passing, which has been branded as the "tiki-taka" style.
"This Barcelona team is made up of a lot of people from La Masia, and that's an important factor in our success, because we know each other for such a long time." - Andres Iniesta
Names of players who are products of the La Masia Academy (in no particular order)
Xavi Hernandez
Charles Puyol
Josep Guardiola
Andres Iniesta
Cesc Fabregas
Lionel Messi
Pedro Rodriguez
Gerard Pique
Sergio Busquets
Mikel Arteta
Bojan Krkic
Thiago Motta
Pepe Riena
victor Valdes
Giovani Dos Santos
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Renewed Hope: La Masia Lives On
The recent featuring of some young academy players in the Barcelona first has raised lots of eyebrows, and have sent a signal to fans and the entire football world that, the assumed issues with academy grown young players at the Camp Nou may have been blown out of proportion. Last week saw some fresh graduates from the popular academy playing in a top flight match in the first team. On Saturday, it was Carles Alena who stole the show, by Thursday, Riqui Puig dominated the media after his debut match for the blaugrana.
No feeling has been able to beat the joy of Barcelona fans as they have been hoping to see the La Masia graduates make the team. For some time now, it has appeared that the academy graduates finds it hard to make it to the first team, but with recent appearance of these two lads, there is indeed a renewed hope for Barcelona's home grown players. The two midfield duo have proven that they are ready to fill the boots of Xavi and iniesta if given the chance, and it's only a matter of time before their reign will come.
After the glorious era of Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Carles Puyol are no longer playing for the club or have retired, and the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique who are still playing for the Catalan giants, not many have been able to break into the first team sqaud of Barcelona on a normal regular basis. And this had raised lots of dust as regards the current situation and products of the academy. Thanks to the stars, our fears have been allayed to some extent with the emergence of Alena and Puig. Sergio Roberto is to some extent another success story, as he found favour in the books of Enrique. However, player like Munir holds a first team place, but his services is rarely called upon by the coach.
Now, with the academy suddenly unleashing Alena and Puig into the limelight, the duo have revived the hopes of Barcelona fans all over the world that indeed, all hope has not been lost about home grown players. The have grown together in the system, they know the philosophy of the team already, when to pass and when to move. These takes some months before new signings are able to blend in. These two needs just some few appearances in tough games to build their confidence, and they are set.
Against Villarreal last weekend, Alena came in as a substitute to replace Arturo Vidal. It didn't take long for him to announce his arrival to the world, as masterful through-ball from Lionel Messi found him, and of course, he scored his first La Liga goal in Barcelona's 2-0 win over Villarreal. The young star couldn't hide his delight playing alongside Messi. “It’s much easier when you play with Messi, because only he can pass that ball to you, nobody else would see it,” explained Alena.
Wednesday saw the appearance of another young star Puig in the Barcelona shirt. The 19 year old didn't take long to attract the media to sing his praises, as a sublime performance against Cultural Leonesa in the Copa del Rey second leg fixture saw him star in the match. A well crafted pass by Puig to Denis Suarez helped Barcelona beat their opponent 4-1 in the game.
Though he appears physically small, maybe a child among men if you like. However, the stories and life event of Messi must have thought many that is not the size of the man in the fight, but the size of the fight in the man. His display against Cultural on Wednesday shows that he is ready for the team, it's just a matter of time.
“I came to Camp Nou when I was three years old, imagine the hope and excitement I had running out onto the pitch, and even more given that Ernesto gave me 35 minutes, it's a dream,” he said. Although he appeared a bit nervous at the start, he found him rhythm in few minutes and joined forces to dictate the midfield.
For me, the future of Barcelona will be more Secured if more attention is given to the La Masia graduates or home grown players, than signing foreign players.
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