La Masia, the renowned academy of FC Barcelona is one of the best youth systems in the world, with many world-class players emerging from there as youngsters with a bright future.
For example, such pillars of the ‘golden era’ like the leaving Sergio Busquets, Leo Messi, or current coach Xavi Hernández are all La Masia graduates, and even closer examples in Gavi and Baldé further prove that the academy is still at the top in producing footballing gems.
That said, the great work continues within the walls of La Masia, which is still producing great prospects for the world of football, but firstly, of course, for Barcelona.
Meanwhile, the main stage where the youngsters show themselves, Barça Atlètic is doing well in competing for the promotion to Segunda División, and recently, Xavi Hernández also praised Rafa Márquez’s work with the Blaugrana subsidiary.
Moreover, the Catalan coach went on to describe some of the young talents for the future with a few words:
Marc Casadó as ‘character’, Chadi Riad as ‘mentality’, Estanis Pedrola as ‘talent’, Lamine Yamal also as ‘talent’, Pau Prim as ‘balance’, Héctor Fort as ‘power’, Marc Guiu as ‘pure 9’, Dani Rodríguez as ‘sparkle and talent’, Unai Hernández as ‘good mentality to succeed’ and Aleix Garrido as a perfect profile for Barca.
According to SPORT, the former midfield maestro has assured that 6 or 7 homegrown players will be called up with the first-team players for the upcoming pre-season in the United States.
Xavi himself came through the ranks of Barcelona’s youth system before becoming one of the best midfielders in the world, so it’s evident why he always holds the players from the youth ranks in high regard, as he has already shown in his two seasons as a coach of the club.
He had nothing but good words to say about former great defender of the club Rafa Márquez’s work with Barça B, as the two are great friends who shared a dressing room years ago. “I’m very happy for the Barca reserve team, but above all with Rafa Márquez. He is calm, honest, and has a good speech. He is very close to me. He helps a lot in the training of the footballers”.
He also spoke about Lamine Yamal, one of La Masia’s pearls who made his debut with the first team a few months ago:
“He’s 15 years old, he’s very young, he’s talented and from then you need to make sacrifices. He wants to be a Barça player. I’ve seen players with Lamine’s talent who haven’t made it. We will see if he is in pre-season: the idea is that 6 or 7 players will come. His renewal? As Cruyff said, whoever doesn’t want to be here shouldn’t be here”.
Xavi also assessed the situation of Victor Barberà and Ilias Akhomach, players of the reserve team who are leaving Barcelona after finishing their contracts with the club. “You can’t make a profit of them because their contracts are up. They have been offered a renewal but they decided to leave. When first division teams come, it’s difficult.” he declared.
