La Masia gradually losing its presence in Barcelona’s first team
The number of players promoted from La Masia academy to Barcelona’s first team has reduced in recent times.
La Masia, the youth academy of Barcelona, has produced a number of legends over the period. The facility which carries out training sessions for about 300 young players has remained the primary reason for inculcating the Barcelona culture into the players right from their childhood.
The academy believes in ‘Més que un Club‘ ideology and in nurturing values in each player who passes from the academy. It’s not just about teaching on-field lessons to the players but rather imparting the sports knowledge and innovation in every gameplan.
Pep Guardiola was the ideal graduate out of the youth academy who took the Barcelona’s traditions from the academy as a youth player to the first team, then as a manager of Barca B team and ultimately managing the club to its glory days during his coaching of the first team. La Masia has generated some of the top talents world football has ever seen with the likes of Carles Puyol, Victor Valdes, Xavi, Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Cesc Fabregas, Jordi Alba and obviously the GOAT in world football: Lionel Messi.
Barcelona made history in 2012 when the entire starting eleven which featured against Levante saw the academy players playing on the field. Such had been the image and importance of La Masia at Camp Nou.
This promotion of the youth players to the first team started reducing gradually with the retirement of Puyol and departure of Xavi in 2015. The fact that talents like Sergi Samper and Munir el Haddadi were let go on loan to make way for external signings during Luis Enrique’s reign further caused concern. Culture and traditions prevalent in Barcelona over the past few decades had reduced in importance during Enrique’s coaching period. The departure of Xavi and Andres Iniesta from the club ended a golden era of possession play and the art of the passing game started playing a reduced part in Barcelona’s tactical systems.
Xavi while speaking to Catalunya radio had voiced a concern regarding the departure of Joan Vila, “If you take Joan Vila out of Barca, what is Barca doing? This is the question. He is the person with the most knowledge of Barcelona’s positional play. I don’t understand it. I am concerned about the situation at Barcelona academy”.
The current Barcelona squad of 2018-2019 consist of four captains from La Masia namely Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Sergi Roberto, and Gerard Pique steering the team. Jordi Alba and Rafinha are the other La Masia graduates often involved in the first team squad. But besides these players, there are no other players featuring regularly from La Masia. Youth players are struggling to make it to the manager’s first team, and the transfer strategy Ernesto Valverde has followed in the club with the expensive foreign signings of Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho is not good news for the legacy of the youth academy.
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Riqui Puig, Marc Cucurella, Abel Ruiz and Carles Aleñá are some of the youth players who have been performing well and deserve more first-team chances to learn, grow and secure the legacy of this European giant.