Founded in 1899, Futbol Club Barcelona grew to become one of the biggest football clubs in the world. FCB, or simply called Barca, is wildly known for their excellent football youth academy known as La Masia, where children from across Spain and other countries come in hopes of climbing through the ranks and becoming the next Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, or Xavi. In this research paper, I will explore this La Masia as an educational facility. I will look at the academy’s pedagogical structure, impact, diversity, beliefs and values, similarities and differences with other academies, and why it is famous for being a “football factory.” I will also look for suggestions to better improve the academy as an organization and why it should be more accessible elsewhere in the world.
Background
According to the FC Barcelona website, La Masia was an 18th century farmhouse located in the Catalan region of Spain. In the late 1970s, Barca’s organization turned La Masia into a training facility that eventually became Barca’s official youth academy. Barca would send out recruiters to find talented children under the age of eleven. Some of the very talented children would even receive a full scholarship to the academy, where they receive football training and a solid education.
La Masia is a relatively small academy, holding around 300 youth talents and is admired worldwide for producing some of the finest players in history. (Wikipedia, “La Masia History”). In the 2010 Ballon d’Or, an annual award given to the best player of the year, the three finalists were all players who came through La Masia: Messi, Iniesta, and Xavi.
La Masia’s Structure as An Educational Facility
First and foremost, La Masia is Barca’s youth academy. Its goals are simple: Educate, train, and produce a future for both the students and Barca.
According to Barca’s official website, La Masia’s goal “has been to educate, both sportingly and intellectually, young people who have left their families and their communities to pursue a career with Barca” (“La Masia History”). By instilling their values and beliefs into their students, these children grow up to be more than just football players, they become educated individuals who can apply what they are taught into their future careers whether it’s related to football or not.
In a report that was conducted by CBS’s 60 Minutes, news television correspondent Bob Simon visited La Masia’s facility in Spain to learn more about the academy. He found that the academy provides “communal living, lots of carbohydrates, and after a long day at school is homework with tutors” (Simon, 2013) available for all La Masia residents. Other facilities include medical rooms, kitchens, recreational areas, auditoriums, swimming pool, study rooms, and much more (“Technical Details of new La Masia”).
In a New York Times article titled, “The Catalan Way to Grow Players on Home Soil,” Jere Longman echoes the success of La Masia, “La Masia has become an international model for the financial, athletic and social benefits of growing players on home soil.” Longman also states that the students receive college level education once they become older and join the higher ranks of Barca teams such as the Barca B team. Longman compares La Masia’s pedagogy to the US and Europe, “[La Masia] differs from the standard American model of youth sports development, which is generally based in schools. And it differs, too, from the typical European football model, in which the best players often quit school around the age of 15 to devote their full attention to the sport” (Longman, 2011). In the same article, Longman quotes La Masia’s director of the residence, Carles Folguera, “This surprises people. They think the players are here to play football and not to study. We prepare them for sport, but also to have another future if sport does not work out” (Longman, 2011). This ensures that La Masia’s intentions are selfless in the sense that, if the students fail to become professional players, they will have received an education to benefit them otherwise.
In an effort to learn more about the La Masia students who do not make it as professional athletes, I attempted to contact Barca representatives with several questions about their academy. Unfortunately, I never received any feedback from them. A prime example of a La Masia student who did not become a successful player is Tito Vilanova. According to his profile on Barca’s website, he joined La Masia in 1984, along side Barca legend Pep Guardiola. Vilanova failed to make the first team and eventually moved from club to club until his retirement in 1990/2000, without making in significant moments in football history. However, because of La Masia’s teachings, he began his career in coaching shortly after his retirement as an assistant coach to Pep Guardiola, managing the first team for three years and winning 14 titles. Shortly after Guardila left the team, Vilanova took over as head coach for one year until he stepped down due to health issues (“Tito Vilanova (2012-2013)”). It is true that not all La Masia youth make the first team and write their names in history, but you will find that they do lead successful lives as individuals thanks to the education they receive from the academy.
The issue of education versus sports reminds me of American football coach Tony Dungy’s book Quiet Strength. Dungy, in an effort to support his players, argues that their lives are not just football, it’s important that they be educated (Dungy, 2007) Dungy would agree with La Masia’s ideology of fusing education and sports together to ensure the well being of the youth’s future.
Local and Global Impact
There are many world famous players who came through Barca’s academy; Example players include: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique, Victor Valdez, Carles Puyol, and Guardiola. As individuals, these current and past players all commend La Masia’s impact on both theirs lives and the lives of the community around them.
In a Daily Mail article titled, “A League of their own: inside FC Barcelona’s football academy, churning out future Messis for free”, Rob Draper quotes La Masia former student and current Napoli Goalkeeper Pepe Reina on growing up as a La Masia youth. “They say that they don’t just grow you as a footballer at La Masia but also as a person and it’s true,” said Reina, “You can learn to respect others and also to sharpen up your ideas. I grew up much more quickly there.” La Masia’s impact on their youth shapes them into respectful individuals in their community.
The 60 Minutes report also included an interview with current Barca midfielder Cesc Fabregas who talked about how it felt being a 10-year-old in La Masia. He said, “I was very lucky. I’m not just talking about the football; I’m talking about manners, values, education and school. The only thing is that you have to study a lot…they are pretty strict, but it’s worth it” (Simon, 2013). He also added that discipline is strongly implemented within the academy and the consequences are made clear.
Reina and Fabregas, along with eleven other players from the Spanish national team who have also come through the academy, succeeded in winning the most famous award of the football world, the 2010 World Cup (Wikipedia, “La Masia”). This fact alone proves the great success that La Masia achieved with their product players. La Masia is praised and envied by many other similar academies around the world.
According to Barca’s official website, La Masia “has been, and still is, a reference and model that many clubs around the world would like to copy” (“La Masia History”). What makes La Masia different from average academies is their aim to educate their youth, not only providing them with training.
On a Global level, Barca’s football ideology receives high demand in many countries. One of Barca’s projects is to help teach these ideologies and methodologies of football. The project, called FCBEscola, has shown great success around the world in counties such as: USA, India, Egypt, Kuwait, Israel, Palestine, Turkey, and many othes. (“FCBEscola”) The club’s motto, “more than just a club,” is greatly applied within La Masia’s mission statement.
Similarities and Differences with Other Academies
The success of Barca’s youth academy, especially producing players at their own home turf, has given many other clubs the same incentive to do the same thing. Football clubs around Europe and the world began replicating the idea of bringing up players from their own backyard can be seen by some of the most famous football clubs.
Barca’s biggest rival, Real Madrid, has been pressure by fans and football experts to promote youth academy players into their higher ranked teams, mainly the first team. Real’s youth academy, called La Fabrica, is relatively good academy. Some of Real’s successful players were produced through La Fabrica; but compared to La Masia, the number of academy-produced players are low.
In an article written by Dermot Corrigan on espnfc.com titled, “La Fabrica’s raw materials”, Corrigan question’s Real’s position on their lack of La Fabrica youth on their first team. He pointed out that, at the time the article was written, there was only one player from Real’s academy on the first team. The issue in Real, Corrigan explains, is that they “managed to scout the promising youngsters, but then let them go without gaining the full benefit” (Corrigan, 2012). Corrigan quoted Valdo, a former La Fabrica youth and current Fiorentina player, about leaving Real after so many years at the academy, “I made each step up from 11 years old and when you reach the last floor they tell you cannot climb any more, you need to find another place to keep developing,” he said. “It was difficult there, for the competition, for the demand there is to win every year. A kid of 18 or 20 years needs some patience and at Madrid patience is impossible” (Corrigan, 2012). This leaves a big question mark on Madrid’s efforts to promote homegrown players.
Since Corrigan’s article was written in 2012—along with the pressure put on Real to use players from their academy as opposed to spending millions and billions of Euros on players from other teams—things have changed in Real Madrid’s first team. The rivalry between Real and Barca, with Barca’s greater success in the last decade thanks to their youth products, inspired Real to begin developing their own players.
Juan Antonio Jimenez and Jaime Rincon wrote an article on Marca, a well-respected sports news source in Spain, on the issue of Real and Barca’s youth academies, titled “La Fabrica vs. La Masia: Real-ly worlds apart?” Jimenez and Rincon compare the two teams by saying, “the image of a Barcelona team stuffed with home-grown talent, while [Real Madrid] forks out big bucks on high-profile signings, has become widely accepted. Barca line-ups featuring as many as 11 youth products and Real threatening to break the €100-million barrier on a single player certainly suggest that the two clubs’ philosophies are chalk and cheese” (Jimenez, Rincon 2013). Jimenez and Rincon reiterate the disappointment of fans towards Real’s reputation of spending extraordinary amounts of money to buy players who then fail to improve the team’s performance, rather than imitating Barca by bringing up players who play in Real’s style. However, the two reporters also touch on the changes that have developed as of recently in Real’s philosophy. On of their conclusions state that:
Some 25 Barca youth-teamers have made their senior debuts in the last five years, and five of them have established themselves in the first-team squad to some extent (Tello, Montoya, Sergi Roberto, Bartra and Busquets). Real has blooded 20 academy players, three of whom are currently members of the senior squad (Morata, Nacho and Jesé), although so far they have mainly been restricted to cameo appearances” (Jimenez, 2013).
Jimenez and Rincon concluded that the gap is indeed narrowing and, in the future, there will be more players in Real who climbed through the ranks of the academy.
Applying La Masia Globally
The research I conducted on La Masia has opened my eyes to new possibilities of obtaining an education that could lead to a successful career. The philosophy that a student can balance his or her education, while training to become a potential professional athlete, is a philosophy that should be implemented worldwide. Of course, there has to be many resources and exceptions to be made if it were to be applied; I believe that if La Masia’s pedagogy were to be adopted by educational facilities around the world, the future of youth would change.
Imagine if a local school in Virginia opened a La Masia, not just for football but for other sports as well. What the children can learn and achieve in their lives can go beyond what typical schools can produce. Even if these children do not become professional athletes, they would still receive an education.
One of the prime examples of applying La Masia’s philosophy is an academy based in Doha, Qatar, called Aspire. Aspire was developed in hopes that, by 2020, their goal of producing world-class educated athletes would flourish in the 2020 Olympics in Japan. According to Aspire’s official website, their vision is to, “be recognized as the world’s leading sports academy in the development of youth athletes. We will be a leading player in fitness, health and wellness education in Qatar.” Aspire, like La Masia, also share similar values that are taught to their students, “accountability, synergy and teamwork, professionalism, integrity, respect, and excellence.” Part of Aspire’s identity is what they call Champions Of Tomorrow, in which they state:
When we welcome a new student-athlete to our world-class facilities in Doha, our ultimate aim is to nurture and train the youth to become a complete sportsperson. As we press on for sporting excellence in the society we serve, we acknowledge that it is a question of a generation. We also recognize that victories are hard fought and proudly won. But more importantly, we value a triumph that stems from the foundations of integrity, hard-work and competitiveness. That is the ultimate sporting glory. At Aspire Academy, we celebrate it. (Aspire, “Who We Are”).
Although La Masia does not directly influence Aspire, the same philosophy is applied in terms of educating the youth.
By giving youth an opportunity to shine on and off the field, not as an extra-curricular, but as a potential career option, it will give youth an incentive to work hard and apply the values they are taught in their lives. From the perspective of health, one child can be physically healthy, while becoming mentally stronger as he or she builds character from the academy’s values.
The FC Barcelona Times 