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A nice article found in the general information newspaper from Madrid, El Pais:
Iván Torreblanca was born on October 4, 2001. He's barcelonista, wants to be football player and he's the youngest player of the youth team of Barcelona. Iván is in the same team of Guillermo Amor Torres, that is, the son of the icon of the academy, Guillermo Amor -no other player raised in La Masia has won more titles than him- and the grandson of Toni Torres, a defender that was part of the team that won La Liga in 1974. Both play in the pussins team (from 8 to 10 years old), created this season as the starting point of the youth system, because "the talents are ensure loyalty earlier this day", Txiki Begiristain said.
The club search kids "technical and fast" to play with precision and speed. Nowadays, under the orders of José Ramón Alexanko, the director of the youth system; Quique Costas, as advisor; and Albert Benaiges, as responsible of the inferior cathegories until they're 14, Barça controls more than 300 football players and has 24 coaches to make a clear and declared bet for taking footballers to the first team. Alexanko reconize that "we work with the Camp Nou in mind". On Sunday, Victor Sánchez made his debut in San Mamés. Victor Sánchez, as Pedro or Busquets, has got the final impulse from Pep Guardiola to reach the first team in this year.
"The changes in the norms demanded a different mentality in the last years. Messi is an example of it", Begiristain confirms. "He's Argentinian, but, for all the effects, he has La Masia's trademark. We've 'done' him at home". And, in this senses, he highlights the differences with the EPL and calcio: "We educate the players since they're kids. They sign players who are over 14". It's enough to look at the matchday played on October 5. Inter and Arsenal didn't play with any player of their youth system; Milan (Maldini), Bayern (Rensing), Chelsea (Terry) and Juve (Marchisio), only one; Liverpool (Carragher and Gerrard) and Lyon (Benzema and Mounier, two; Madrid (De la Red, Casillas and Raul) and Manchester Utd. (Brown, Giggs and O'Shea), three. That day, Barça played with 8 players of the youth system.
Frank Rijkaard made 28 players of the academy to have their debut in his 5 years in the Camp Nou. Some didn't play much, 5 continue in the first team (Jorquera, Messi, Bojan, Victor Sánchez and Pedrito). Ohers finished in other Primera teams (Cristian, Rodri and Verdú in Depor, and Damià in Betis). There are others who continue in the B team (Victor Vázquez, Oier, Rueda and Jeffren) and others make their life in foreign countries, like Javito (PAOK), Orlandi (Swansea) and Marc Crosas (Celtic). All of them, marked by the guarantee of origin, carry the trademark of La Masia de Can Planes, a typical Catalan house of the 17th century, which firstly served as offices and, later, was a residence where 493 kids lived and, at least, a 10% of them played in the first team; a 9% of them played in other Primera clubs and a 27% in Segunda. "Whoever that lived in La Masia has something that makes him different, a plus that is only given when you play with the Barça shirt since you're a kid", Guardiola said, glad of the education he got in his formation years. "Isn't it true that a wine of Rioja and another of the Priorat are different? With football is exactly the same", Charly Rexach insists, a life in Barça, 17 years as player and more than 20 as coach: "The level of exigency is high. We prepare the kids to respond to this maximum exigence", Alexanko assumes. Begiristain says: "The kids grow up with the exigence of winning even the friendly games. The idea is to form good people and competitive players".
The coaches hope that 2 or 3 players of each generation reach the first team. Not many of them were more productive than the so called Quinta de Lo Pelat -Celades, Quique Álvarez, Moreno, De la Peña, Roger, Velamazán, Jordi Cruyff-; also the Quinta of the 80 -Xavi, Arnau, Puyol and Luis Garciía-; the one of 1982 -Fernando Navarro, Reina, Arteta, Motta- and the one of 1987 seems unbeatable -Messi, Piqué, Victor Vázquez and Cesc. At the same time, 11 players from Cameroon play in the youth levels, thanks to the Fundación Eto'o. Some of them ready to triumph in the B-team, with the new pearl: Assulin, international with Israel bein 16 years old.
Eleven (Valdés, Piqué, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Bojan, Jorquera, Pedrito, Busquets and Víctor Sánchez) out of the 24 players of the first team come from the youth system. Even though Jorquera didn't make his debut yet, the other 10 players played more minutes than all the rest together. They've played the 51.6% of the minutes in Liga and CL. An amount that must be highlighted compared with the signings of this year -not counting Piqué, formed in La Masia-, who played a 15.9%.
Even though there's no official data, an estimation says that the club dedicate 12M to the academy. "A worthy investment", Barça assure. "We couldn't pay the money for a player like Xavi or Iniesta in the market". The club counts on 12 teams: Barça B, 2 of "juveniles", "cadetes", "infantiles", "alevines" and "benjamines" and one of "pre-benjamines". They also count on psycologists, fisiotherapists and nutritionists, aside teachers to reinforce their studies. In June, the club added a specific coach that gives them classes of individual technic.
Barça wants the players to be "technical, fast and with personality" o play a football of position, possession and precision, and achieve the fastest velocity of execution. Benaiges says that the "most difficult is to find strikers, because this is where you need more talent. You must add killer instinct to skills and speed". And, knowing that Barça mainly produce midfielders, he adds: "To play in midfield, they need to be intelligent and to have food skills. Everyday we have more and more midfielders, so we convert some of them in defenders".
Iván Torreblanca is 7 years old and plays in the pre-benjamin. He wants to be football player. For now, he already has the trademark, guarantee of origin La Masia.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/equipo/hecho/casa/elpepidep/20081021elpepidep_6/Tes
Iván Torreblanca was born on October 4, 2001. He's barcelonista, wants to be football player and he's the youngest player of the youth team of Barcelona. Iván is in the same team of Guillermo Amor Torres, that is, the son of the icon of the academy, Guillermo Amor -no other player raised in La Masia has won more titles than him- and the grandson of Toni Torres, a defender that was part of the team that won La Liga in 1974. Both play in the pussins team (from 8 to 10 years old), created this season as the starting point of the youth system, because "the talents are ensure loyalty earlier this day", Txiki Begiristain said.
The club search kids "technical and fast" to play with precision and speed. Nowadays, under the orders of José Ramón Alexanko, the director of the youth system; Quique Costas, as advisor; and Albert Benaiges, as responsible of the inferior cathegories until they're 14, Barça controls more than 300 football players and has 24 coaches to make a clear and declared bet for taking footballers to the first team. Alexanko reconize that "we work with the Camp Nou in mind". On Sunday, Victor Sánchez made his debut in San Mamés. Victor Sánchez, as Pedro or Busquets, has got the final impulse from Pep Guardiola to reach the first team in this year.
"The changes in the norms demanded a different mentality in the last years. Messi is an example of it", Begiristain confirms. "He's Argentinian, but, for all the effects, he has La Masia's trademark. We've 'done' him at home". And, in this senses, he highlights the differences with the EPL and calcio: "We educate the players since they're kids. They sign players who are over 14". It's enough to look at the matchday played on October 5. Inter and Arsenal didn't play with any player of their youth system; Milan (Maldini), Bayern (Rensing), Chelsea (Terry) and Juve (Marchisio), only one; Liverpool (Carragher and Gerrard) and Lyon (Benzema and Mounier, two; Madrid (De la Red, Casillas and Raul) and Manchester Utd. (Brown, Giggs and O'Shea), three. That day, Barça played with 8 players of the youth system.
Frank Rijkaard made 28 players of the academy to have their debut in his 5 years in the Camp Nou. Some didn't play much, 5 continue in the first team (Jorquera, Messi, Bojan, Victor Sánchez and Pedrito). Ohers finished in other Primera teams (Cristian, Rodri and Verdú in Depor, and Damià in Betis). There are others who continue in the B team (Victor Vázquez, Oier, Rueda and Jeffren) and others make their life in foreign countries, like Javito (PAOK), Orlandi (Swansea) and Marc Crosas (Celtic). All of them, marked by the guarantee of origin, carry the trademark of La Masia de Can Planes, a typical Catalan house of the 17th century, which firstly served as offices and, later, was a residence where 493 kids lived and, at least, a 10% of them played in the first team; a 9% of them played in other Primera clubs and a 27% in Segunda. "Whoever that lived in La Masia has something that makes him different, a plus that is only given when you play with the Barça shirt since you're a kid", Guardiola said, glad of the education he got in his formation years. "Isn't it true that a wine of Rioja and another of the Priorat are different? With football is exactly the same", Charly Rexach insists, a life in Barça, 17 years as player and more than 20 as coach: "The level of exigency is high. We prepare the kids to respond to this maximum exigence", Alexanko assumes. Begiristain says: "The kids grow up with the exigence of winning even the friendly games. The idea is to form good people and competitive players".
The coaches hope that 2 or 3 players of each generation reach the first team. Not many of them were more productive than the so called Quinta de Lo Pelat -Celades, Quique Álvarez, Moreno, De la Peña, Roger, Velamazán, Jordi Cruyff-; also the Quinta of the 80 -Xavi, Arnau, Puyol and Luis Garciía-; the one of 1982 -Fernando Navarro, Reina, Arteta, Motta- and the one of 1987 seems unbeatable -Messi, Piqué, Victor Vázquez and Cesc. At the same time, 11 players from Cameroon play in the youth levels, thanks to the Fundación Eto'o. Some of them ready to triumph in the B-team, with the new pearl: Assulin, international with Israel bein 16 years old.
Eleven (Valdés, Piqué, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Bojan, Jorquera, Pedrito, Busquets and Víctor Sánchez) out of the 24 players of the first team come from the youth system. Even though Jorquera didn't make his debut yet, the other 10 players played more minutes than all the rest together. They've played the 51.6% of the minutes in Liga and CL. An amount that must be highlighted compared with the signings of this year -not counting Piqué, formed in La Masia-, who played a 15.9%.
Even though there's no official data, an estimation says that the club dedicate 12M to the academy. "A worthy investment", Barça assure. "We couldn't pay the money for a player like Xavi or Iniesta in the market". The club counts on 12 teams: Barça B, 2 of "juveniles", "cadetes", "infantiles", "alevines" and "benjamines" and one of "pre-benjamines". They also count on psycologists, fisiotherapists and nutritionists, aside teachers to reinforce their studies. In June, the club added a specific coach that gives them classes of individual technic.
Barça wants the players to be "technical, fast and with personality" o play a football of position, possession and precision, and achieve the fastest velocity of execution. Benaiges says that the "most difficult is to find strikers, because this is where you need more talent. You must add killer instinct to skills and speed". And, knowing that Barça mainly produce midfielders, he adds: "To play in midfield, they need to be intelligent and to have food skills. Everyday we have more and more midfielders, so we convert some of them in defenders".
Iván Torreblanca is 7 years old and plays in the pre-benjamin. He wants to be football player. For now, he already has the trademark, guarantee of origin La Masia.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/equipo/hecho/casa/elpepidep/20081021elpepidep_6/Tes
