THE FALL AND RISE OF LA MASIA: HOW BARCELONA'S ACADEMY BEGAN PRODUCING WORLD-CLASS WONDERKIDS ONCE AGAIN
Barcelona have been breaking records of late - but not the ones they might have expected. This La Liga-winning team from last year probably hoped that they would once again be in the mix for the title, their core of players in their prime and reliable veterans shepherding Xavi's side to a Spanish top-flight repeat.
Instead, results have gone awry, and this campaign will likely be remembered for the one in which youth became the currency of this Blaugrana setup. In Barca's Champions League round of 16 clash against Napoli in March, Xavi started multiple players under the age of 18 - a first for the competition. Add Fermin Lopez, who came off the bench to score, and it was the Catalan youth that kept their season alive.
Lamine Yamal has certainly been the standout, but this is by no means a solo effort. Pau Cubarsi has impressed, while Hector Fort and Marc Guiu have also been handed opportunities. Piece it all together, and La Masia, the great footballing academy that has seen its talent dry up in recent years, has returned with a bang. And although this Barca side will not win La Liga, and have committed the unspeakable crime of a trophyless campaign, the rebirth of the sport's most well-regarded academy offers hope for the future.
Pep starts it off
La Masia had always been a place ripe with talent when Pep Guardiola took the helm in 2008. The first-team squad that he inherited included a number of top players from the academy. A certain Lionel Messi was the standout, but Carles Puyol, Andreas Iniesta, Xavi and Victor Valdes made up the core of the team.
Guardiola, a La Masia man himself, only expanded that. He brought Sergio Busquets into the fold, gave valuable minutes to Thiago Alcantara, and bought Gerard Pique - a Barca youth product - back from Manchester United in his first summer in the job. By 2009, the legendary manager had a distinctly Catalan side on the pitch, the spine of Spain's dominant national team, and five La Masia graduates playing nearly every game.
And that side soon became the envy of world football, Tiki-Taka becoming synonymous with Barcelona, and perfected in the halls of its famous academy.
Bartomeu and the dark years
But that soon changed. Joan Laporta oversaw the original years of the La Masia revival, but new president Josep Bartomeu, who took over in 2014, went about tearing it apart. He had worked under Laporta in the late 2000s, but when called upon for the role himself, Bartomeu took a different approach. His reign was defined by not only poor management of club funds, but also a scattergun transfer policy that often neglected youth.
There were some fine transfers completed during his tenure, with Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic brought in. But he also made some catastrophic decisions in the market. His buys make for grim reading, with Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho and Malcom all walking through the door. Meanwhile, Neymar left for PSG and Luis Enrique was allowed to vacate his managerial position.
La Masia, meanwhile, went quiet. Although Sergi Roberto worked his way into the side - and subsequently scored one of the most important goals in club history - it was an otherwise fallow period. And without the pipeline of talent coming through, Barca only continued to spend. By 2021, the most famous La Masia graduate of all, Messi, was forced to leave the club due to the state of their finances.
False dawns and the 'next Messi'
For years, Barca have searched through their ranks to find the next big thing. Before he even left the club, an obsession developed in finding the next Messi to lead the club into the future.
Every few weeks, it seemed, Barca had a new contender. Bojan was first, but faded quickly from the spotlight. Giovani Dos Santos and Riqui Puig both followed, but neither could make a mark on the biggest stage. Gerard Deulofeu, too, saw a promising career go awry. There were further options deeper into the ranks. Japanese youth international Take Kubo was full of promise, but a botched deal saw him depart for Real Madrid. Xavi Simons - named after the Barca legend himself - left for PSG when presented with a handsome offer to join the Parisian club.
It became a curse for any number of players to be associated with the great Argentine, and only piled pressure on the famous footballing factory to start producing again.
Koeman changes things
Things shifted under the tutelage of Ronald Koeman, though. The Dutch manager endured a poor spell at the helm in Catalonia. A former Barca player who became a key component of John Cruyff's "dream team" in the early 1990s, Koeman could never quite figure it out in just over one full season at the club. He publicly fell out with Laporta, now back as president, who admitted that the veteran manager was not his first choice for the job. Still, despite the fractious relationship between the two, Laporta remained steadfast to his La Masia first approach, and has consistently lauded academy talents as they have grown into the side.
It wasn't enough to save Koeman's job, though, and he was fired in late 2021. The former Everton boss' time in the job won't be remembered for success on the pitch, but his legacy has since improved due to some of the selection decisions he made. Stripped of financial support, Koeman dipped back into the Blaugrana academy. He made Ansu Fati a crucial part of his side, handed a debut to Gavi, and also entrusted Las Palmas recruit Pedri with significant minutes.
Barca may not have won much under his leadership - and Koeman could have few complaints about his dismissal - but he did prove that there was life in the club yet.
Xavi and his kids
Xavi only continued that effort. He suffered from some of the same limiting factors that plagued Koeman. With no Messi and no money to replace him with, the manager was forced to get creative. The former La Masia man had no choice but to turn to youth. Gavi, Pedri, Ansu and Alejandro Balde all became key parts of the side, while others awaited their chances.
This season, youth has played an even more important role. Yamal has established himself as the most promising young talent in world football, and has played with freedom despite the Messi comparisons that have plagued his early days in red and blue. Fermin Lopez, too, has worked his way into the fold, full of energy and industry in central areas. Cubarsi is the most recent addition, and looks more than comfortable in central defence - highlighted by a brilliant display against Kylian Mbappe and PSG in the Champions League in early April.
Piece it together, and the soon-to-depart manager has handed out 15 professional debuts to La Masia products. His style might not be the return of the "Barca DNA" that Xavi promised in his introductory press conference, but he has done his part to ensure that the academy is back on the map.
How far can they go?
Now Barca face the daunting task of confronting what's next. Across the country, rivals Real Madrid are only getting stronger, their free-spending president Florentino Perez assembling a squad stacked full of young talent. Mbappe will soon arrive in the capital, so too will Endrick. There is talk of Alphonso Davies making a high profile move from Bayern Munich. Barca cannot keep up with their spending - not now, at least.
Things get even more difficult with the managerial uncertainty in Catalonia. The club are reportedly trying to convince Xavi to stay - buoyed by the recent run of promising performances after the coach announced his pending resignation. There is a sense that this manager, who has already handed out debuts for fun, might be the best one to cultivate the wave of youth. Vice-president Rafa Yuste described Xavi's Barca as a "project" at the end of March, and admitted that he would "try to convince" him to stay. If the club is willing to be patient, then something might just work here.
So, Barca are in a precarious spot. They will, undoubtedly, try to make some moves in the market to push for La Liga glory in the years to come. Laporta, financial levers and all, seems ready to go to war for flexibility once again. But in the midst of it all, Barca finally have something to fall back on again. And should the talent factory continue to produce, their time off the top might just be shorter than expected.