La Masia

in 2013 La Masia de Can Planes was an old Catalan farmhouse, built in 1702. In 1979, it was first used by the club to house its young footballers who originated from outside Barcelona. The idea for the youth academy was proposed to Josep Lluís Núñez by Jaume Amat Murtra and Oriol Tort was put in charge of the facility. In 2011, it was announced that Barcelona would be moving all its football training activities to La Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper. La Masia received more publicity after Barcelona B's success with homegrown players; Rory Smith reported in The Daily Telegraph that La Masia "has replaced the fabled Ajax Academy as football's foremost production line". The recent fame and success of La Masia as a talent school was ascribed by Ian Hawkey of The Times to the class of 1987, which featured prominent members such as Cesc Fàbregas, Lionel Messi, Gerard Piqué and Pedro. In 2000, Louis van Gaal, coach of Barcelona's first team, was widely ridiculed by the city sports media for his dream to win the Champions League with 11 home-grown players. The first team won the trophy in 2009 with eight home-grown players. From 1979 to 2009, 440 youngsters have left their homes and families to stay at the academy. About half of them were from Catalonia, and the rest came from other regions of the Kingdom of Spain and beyond, including 15 from Cameroon, 7 from Brazil, 5 from Senegal and 3 from Argentina. Of those 440, 40 made it into Barcelona's first team. == Organization ==

, a graduate of La Masia, was part of the Barcelona first team from 2008 until 2023. 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. The club also actively seeks for prospective students; it employs a system in which 15 scouts are deployed in Catalonia, 15 in the rest of Spain and 10 scattered throughout the world. To alleviate the expenses of this scouting, the club 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. While expanding its operations abroad, the club established five schools in Mexico and one in Egypt; successful applicants to these schools become full-time students, receiving academic education and football training. When Pep Guardiola re-organised the reserve side, 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 the expectation that the player will improve cohesion and performance within the reserve side. 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. All of the trainers at FC Barcelona are former professional footballers. Barcelona B, the club's main youth team, and the 12 other youth teams contained 24 coaches and more than 300 players. There are 56 other employees, including doctors, psychologists, nutritionists, cooks and physiologists. In the 2009–10 season, the B team qualified for the Segunda División again. Barcelona B play in a 4–3–3 formation, which is the same formation employed by the first team. == Philosophy ==

, Albert Ferrer, Josep Mussons (Barça Vice-president) and Pep Guardiola. This photo was displayed for many years at the entrance of La Masia dining room. Their signature, in Catalan language, encourages future young Barça players by saying "With effort and sacrifice, you can also make it. Just do it, it is worth it!". Former technical director Pep Segura attributes the club's success to its "philosophy of play": "It is about creating one philosophy, one mentality, from the bottom of the club to the top". The philosophy consists of the application of total football mixed with traditional Spanish one-touch play (tiki-taka). The total football approach was derived from the Netherlands football team through Cruyff. An often-quoted reason for Barcelona's success is the continuity and commitment with which Barcelona follow the current philosophy of pass and move. Guardiola was the prototype of the pivotal midfielder; famous midfielders Xavi and Iniesta are its custodians. Another aspect of La Masia is marked by its Catalan national character—local talent in the service of a club with a strong, defining sense of the cultural make-up of Catalonia. == Impact ==

. In 2009, Messi became the first player from La Masia to be awarded with the Ballon d'Or prize for the best footballer in Europe, and the FIFA World Player award, for the best footballer in the world. In the next year, Messi would win the Ballon d'Or again, but La Masia became the first youth academy to have trained all three finalists for in a single year: Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi. Joachim Löw, coach of Germany, said after his side's defeat by Spain that the opposition had a distinct Barcelona style: "You can see it in every pass, how Spain plays is how Barcelona plays. They can hardly be beaten. They are extremely confident and very calm in the way they circulate the ball." On 25 November 2012, for the first time, Barcelona fielded all eleven players that have come up through La Masia in a La Liga match. After Dani Alves was substituted by Martín Montoya due to an injury in the 13th minute, Barça played the next 60 minutes with Víctor Valdés, Montoya, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc Fàbregas, Pedro, and Messi. Nevertheless, the team continued to win trophies and some further canterans did make a breakthrough into the squad, including Rafinha, Carles Aleñá and Sergi Roberto, the latter having to retrain as a right back due to the abundance of talent in his original midfield position. == Notable alumni ==

's reign at Barcelona (2008–2012) marked one of the most successful eras in the history of the club and its youth academy. , the most notable alumnus of La Masia Many players from Barcelona's youth system go on to have careers in football, whether at Barcelona or at other clubs. The following is a list of players who have played for the academy. == References ==