A look at the greatest football academy of the current era, producing players which have conquered not just European football but World football as well

1. The La Masia Story (2011)
In an age when Clubs across Europe are run by American tycoons, Russian & Arab
oligarchs, player transfer have become the whole and soul of team building, the success
of a Club now depends on the money that a Club can spend and even after millions of
dollars are spent rarely has a Club enforced its domination. But in recent years Barcelona
has redefined success and has been a Dominant Force in World football by winning the
La Liga five times in seven years and thrice in a row, the Champions League three times in
six years and Barcelona did it with the strength of the players from their youth academy,
La Masia.
In 2010, La Masia achieved a record breaking honour becoming the first Youth academy
in the World to have all three finalists for the Ballon d'Or in the same year, with Andrés
Iniesta, Lionel Messi & Xavi Hernández, This was only the third time in the history of
the Ballon d'Or that one team has provided all three players for the final three positions,
and the first time that all three finalists came from one Youth academy, Messi then
became the first player from La Masia to win the Ballon d'Or , and also went on to win
the FIFA World Player of the year.
La Masia has not just benefitted Barcelona but also Spain with seven player, and six of
them in the starting eleven: Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi
Hernández, Sergio Busquets & Pedro Rodríguez when Spain won the World Cup 2010. A
Reuters report suggested that Spain's World Cup success was possibly due to La Masia,
other factors mentioned were Economic Development and luck. Joachim Löw, coach of
Germany after his side's defeat by Spain in the World Cup 2010 said “how Spain plays is
how Barcelona plays”.
Player from the La Masia in the current Barcelona squad include Sergio Busquets, Xavi
Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Bojan Krkić, Lionel Messi, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Pedro
Rodríguez & Víctor Valdés, some other notable players from La Masia playing football
currently are Mikel Arteta (Everton), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Thiago Motta
(Internazionale) & Pepe Reina (Liverpool).
It all began when Barcelona legend and honorary president Johan Cruyff in 1979
proposed to then president Josep Núñez to develop a Youth academy in line with the
Ajax Academy. Guillermo Amor was one of the first to graduate from La Masia, he went
on to play 311 League games for Barcelona, other to follow were Carles Busquets and
Josep Guardiola who then became part of the Barcelona Dream Team under Johan
Cruyff .
La Masia was an old country residence built in 1702, purchased by Barcelona in 1954, La
Masia was then used as a workshop for the architects and builders of its new stadium,
Camp Nou, After the Camp Nou was inaugurated on 24 September 1957, La Masia was
closed down, later the building was remodelled, extended and reopened as an office for
the club's headquarters but it could not keep up with the Clubs growth and it was
remodelled to house a youth academy for players coming from outside of Barcelona an
then finally converted into what it is now.

2. Though La Masia has been an integral part of Barcelona’s recent success the credit must
also in large go to current manager Josep Guardiola. It was back in 2007 when Guardiola
was appointed the coach of Barcelona B when the team was relegated to the fourth tier
of Spanish football and was in complete disarray, by the time Guardiola had completed
his reorganization, Barcelona B was playing in the second tier Segunda, the top-tier for a
reserve team. La Masia then made a name for itself with Barcelona B’s success thanks to
the strength of home grown players, The Daily Telegraph claims that La Masia has
replaced the fabled Ajax Academy as football's foremost production line. In over 30 years
of it inauguration LA Masia has provided for more than 500 youngsters from all over the
world but mostly from Catalonia & about 10% of them have made it to the Barcelona first
team.
Guardiola was later appointed the Manager of Barcelona to replace Frank Rijkaard in
2008/09. Guardiola guided Barcelona to a Spanish treble in his first Season, a first in
Spanish football history and also became the youngest manager then to win the
Champions League. Guardiola continued his winning ways with two La liga’s, 2
Champions Leagues, one Copa del Rey, one UEFA super cup and a Fifa Club World Cup.
Guardiola & Barcelona have shown the importance of building a team with home grown
players rather building a team by buying world class player and UEFA, Michel Platini was
right when he said "Barcelona represent my philosophy, not only for the game, but also for
the training of athletes”.