La Masia: as a Business

This is Marc Bombardó, the newest prospect coming out of La Masia. He's known to be a strong, promising player that will hopefully find success when he becomes old enough. Now, if you pay attention you'll notice that he was born in November of 2005, meaning he is currently only 11 years old. And while it may be exciting and promising for a young boy to have such a bright future in the world of football, I can't help but wonder: is this boy too young? There is a real tension within the structure of football academies, because they force children to be pulled away from a "normal" lifestyle and places them into this competitive, serious environment where they are trained to become the perfect model of a football player. It's a promising activity for some, but if you really think about it, are kids 11 and younger really benefitting from this loss of childhood? There are naturally long term effects to having to grow up so fast, as even children as young as Ma...

La Masia cost more than 10 million euros per year to run and keep up. This seems like a lot of money but when you put this in perspective from FC Barcelona’s point of view it isn’t actually that much money. FCB paid 64 Million euros for Neymar not including transfer fees when he was bought in 2013. And how much did they pay for Messi you may ask? Well, zero euros. If FCB could have produced a Neymar and not have bought him La Masia would easily pay for itself and it actually did in the case of Messi and many other players. La Masia saves the club money in many others ways as well. If a player comes from La Masia FCB doesn’t have to recruit for the First Team if they already have a player in La Masia that they want on the team. If a player comes from La Masia there is a lot less chance of their being a huge bidding war over this player between FCB and another club driving up the price of that player because the player has such loyalty to FCB. Speaking of loyalty, often players th...

It's hard to image what really goes on day to day in the most prestigious football academy in the world, but the reality is a lot more normal than you'd expect. FC Barcelona posted a video on Youtube documenting 24 hours in La Masia that gives us great insight into what a day is like for football's next superstars. Their day begins like any other kid: wake up, breakfast, school, etc. But everything starts to get interesting around 15:00, when academy students are allowed free time which includes a session with famous motivational speaker Victor Küppers. They then attended further classes meant to better their English language abilities and to help them achieve their baccalaureate. There is surprisingly a significant amount of emphasis placed on schooling and education for a program dedicated to the creation of famous football stars.  Then around 5:00 PM, La Masia as everyone imagines it begins. Training. This is where the Barça legends are created. This is what th...

In 2010, the Spanish soccer team won the FIFA World Cup. A miraculous feat on its own, but even more incredible when you realize that 7 of the 11 on the field that day were alums of La Masia. Those seven players (Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, and Víctor Valdés) have spent most of their lives playing the game they love with the people that they have known since their childhood.  At La Masia players are taught the Blaugrana style of play, characterized by the Tiki-Taka introduced by famed Barça legend Johan Cruyff. This style is based around the idea of ball possession, of players constantly passing and creating a sort of rhythm in their attack. Because of the nature of the Tiki-Taka, it's important for a player to understand their teammates. There is a need for strong cohesion and understanding amongst all those on the pitch. Naturally, you can see why players who have been playing together for years, who know each other better than a...

A nation or cities identity can be shaped by so many different factors. But one factor that is unmistakably important to the identity of a culture is their sports team. When a jersey is sometimes more identifiable than a nation’s flag how could it not be? Walking on the streets of Barcelona if you ask someone who Lionel Messi is it’s very likely that every reply would relate to FC Barcelona. If you ask someone who Carles Puigemont is I’m not sure how many people would rattle off his title as President of the Generalitat of Catalonia. It seems that FC Barcelona and Catalonia could be synonyms in the dictionary. So, what does it mean that a sports team is so much a part of a city’s identity that their flag is worn on the team’s jersey? It means that this team has the unwavering support of the city’s people, the fans.   The value of the fans is unmeasurable. The club could not be a club without the fans devotion and, let’s be honest, their money. How is it that FC Barcelona c...

La Masia, FC Barcelona’s youth academy is a program devoted to developing young athletes with one philosophy from the very beginning. This philosophy consists of an application of total football mixed with traditional Spanish one-touch play. La Masia’s purpose has always been to educate, both of sport and of intellect. In 2011, La Masia was moved to its new facility, Oriol Tort Training Center. This is a 6,000-square meter building with five stories, housing up to 83 youth athletes. The center cost a whopping 8.8 million euros (not including 2.3 million in taxes and fitting out). So where does this money come from? Why is Barça willing to spend millions on these youngsters from all over the globe? As of 2015 there were 43 La Masia alumni playing in Europe’s five leading leagues. 43 players may not seem like many, when there are more than half that many players on a standard professional squad. B ut think again. Lionel Messi, La M...