Pedro at the double as Barcelona’s kids master BATE Borisov 4-0: was a headline I read after Barca's 4-0 win in their last CL group game. Even though La Masia does get a mention when talking about Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández, Sergio Busquets - nothing much more is said about Barcelona and it's acdamey and just how do they manage to bring through so many quality players, there must be something in the water in Barcelona or something right? Well no, just a lot of hard work and money... for me La Masia is just the tip of the iceberg, it's basically a finishing school -an intensive course preparing you to be able to carry out a set activity to a high standard. "FC Barcelona B, the club's main youth team, and the 12 other youth teams contained 24 coaches and up to 300 players. There are 56 other employees, including doctors, psychologists, nutritionists, cooks and physiologists." 2010-2011 season, the size of the B team and 12 other youth teams that graduated that season. http://arxiu.fcbarce...utbol_base.html FC Barcelona B (currently is a squad of 26) Juvenil A for the 16–18 year olds. (currently is a squad of 21) Juvenil B for the 16–18 year olds. (currently is a squad of 24) Cadet A for the 14–15 year olds. (currently is a squad of 22) Cadet B for the 14–15 year olds. (currently is a squad of 21) Infantil A for the 13–14 year olds. (currently is a squad of 23) Infantil B for the 13–14 years olds. (currently is a squad of 21) Alevi A for the 11–12 year olds. (currently is a squad of 12) Alevi B for the 11–12 year olds. (currently is a squad of 11) Benjamí A for the 9–10 years. (currently is a squad of 10) Benjamí B for the 9–10 years. (currently is a squad of 11) Benjamí C for the 9–10 years. (currently is a squad of 15) Prebenjamí for the 8–9 years. (currently is a squad of 12) That is 114 players aged between 21 to 14 years old. In total it's 229 players ranging from 21 to 8 years of age. Jonathan dos Santos, Giovani dos Santos younger brother who started for Barcelona against BATE "FC Barcelona has an agreement with 15 local clubs for them to train players who are not ready for entry into the youth academy - in return, FC Barcelona gives money, coaching and technical advice to these clubs for their services." So it's not a strech to say that Barcelona could have up to 300 hundred youth players ranging from 21 to 8 years of age, that are currently in one of their many youth teams or training with one of the 15 local clubs that Barcelona have made the agreement that they will train players who are not ready for entry into Barcelona's youth academy -until they are. The academy is one of the most expensive in Europe, operating at a cost of £5 million a year but that never gets mentioned either. La Masia houses about 60 players: 10 in the farmhouse, and the rest in rooms of the adjacent stadium; the rest of the youth players must provide for their own accommodation. I'm guessing here but I'd say all of the 60 odd players living at La Masia would be playing for one of: FC Barcelona B, current squad 26 players. Juvenil A, current squad 21 players. Juvenil B, current squad 24 players. When Guardiola re-organised FC Barcelona B, Juvenil A and Juvenil B, he set up a three-staged program to formalise the advancement from Juvenil to Barcelona B and finally to the first team. The first stage of a youth player's career involves a rotation scheme with Barcelona B. The second stage involves making the player aware of his importance to the team, and expects the player to improve cohesion and performance within the B team... in the last stage, he is designated a "key" player of the B team and might be called to the first team. One of the players in the third phase is made captain, regardless of the experience of older players..... in terms of success rate from La Masia to the first team: "In the 30 year history of La Masia more than 500 youngsters have left their homes and families to stay at the academy, only half of them were from Catalonia, and the rest came from other regions of Spain and beyond: including 20 from Africa, 7 from Brazil and 3 from Argentina. Of those 500, about 10 percent got the chance to play first team football with Barcelona." .... so taking away the fact that only 10 percent of the players who come through La Masia get a chance to play first team football with Barcelona, every batch of 60 players who fight their way through hundreds of other youngsters -on average only 6 of them get a chance to play for the first team. Here is an idea of the scale or their recruiting system for their youth set up, during the previous summer of 2011 Barcelona have signed on 80 new players to their grassroots set up. Going in the other direction 85 players were removed, some better known to some than others for example from Barça B: Victor Vazquez, Nolito, Edu Oriol, Abraham, Benjamin, all got the axe. As for the 80 new players, 57 of them are from Catalan youth teams, 9 goalkeepers, 16 defenders, 30 midfielders and 25 forwards but positions can change. Another 15 players are Spainsh but outside the Catalan region, lastly 6 of them are from foreign countries - 5 different nationalities, including 2 Koreans. However if you just look at just the additions between the ages of 12 to 18 years old, you find that less than half of the player are from Catalan youth teams - 14 are Catalan, 15 from are Spanish but outside the Catalan region and 4 are foreigners. The cost of these additions have not been revealed by the club, but quite often Barca have paid up to 100,000 euros for training rights for some of the youth that are recruited. So it's very clear they invest a lot of time and effort in their younger youth players with aim of creating a couple of debut first team players every year, who can step in and get a start or two plus some sub appearances against the smaller sides but in saying that Barca also invest a lot of cash in promising young players in the 20-22 bracket. Here are some recent examples: Barcelona agreed to sign a 21 year old Keirrison from Palmeiras for €14 million in 2009. Barcelona agreed to sign a 22 year old Henrique from Palmeiras for €8 million in 2008. Barcelona agreed to sign a 21 year old Cáceres from Villarreal for €16.5 million in 2008. As of the 17/07/2011 a Spainish newspaper claimed that in total 253 players will be available for further growth at FCBarcelona. EDIT: Renan Bressan, BATE midfielder "We thought Barcelona's reserve players would be top-class, but this was something else. By the end, I did not feel there was much difference between this side and the first team. We honestly thought we would be able to compete with them, but they were much better than we expected. If this is what lies ahead for the first team - these young players, this academy - then Barcelona will be top of the world for the next ten years. As for us, we just had a poor match." Aleksandr Volodko, BATE midfielder "Nothing went for us, but we were up against Barcelona, not just any old team. Even their reserves are fantastic. We thought the players would be of a lesser quality and that the structure of their game would be different, but it wasn't; they were top-class, even with this fresher lineup." Barcelona employs 25 scouts throughout Spain, with at least one in each province. They convene twice a year at Barcelona, where the bosses reiterate the criteria and quality they're seeking in players. Barcelona also works with about 30 youth clubs throughout Catalonia, with the aim of finding players from the province it prides itself on representing, and it uses contacts throughout the world to find players. As a guide the 10-year olds - the begamins - practice four days a week, in 45 minutes sessions, and play 7 v 7 games on the weekend. As for the players living at La Masia a typical day begins at 7 am and recruits spend the morning in school lessons until lunch at 1 pm... after a short rest, they study for 1 1/2 hours and then at 6 pm train for 2 1/2 hours at the club's facility out at Sant Joan Despi, dinner is at 9.15 pm and lights out at 11.30 pm.
