How The Stars Of Barcelona Are Made

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

On the outskirts of Barcelona, in lands that not long ago were orchards, hundreds of children live the dream of becoming successful soccer players every day, like those who will play the Russian World Cup with their teams in a few days.

Some of these little ones take up to four hours a day on the road to train, others have had to leave their families hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. All to enjoy the privilege and responsibility of being part of the Masia, the famous quarry of FC Barcelona from which global stars such as, among others, Leo Messi, Gerard Piqué and Andrés Iniesta have emerged.

Although it is only a residence for children who live far from their families, the Masia is much more than a building. It is the synonym with which the precious quarry of the Catalan team is known, which arouses immense pride among its fans for embodying the club's values.

The young promises residence is the soul of the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, the modern complex of Barcelona in the town of Sant Joan Despí, where the professional teams of the club train, not only football, but also basketball or handball, among other sports.

Currently 79 minors live in the Masia, 75 percent Spanish and the rest of other countries, with ages ranging from 11 to 18 years, according to the club. Most are future soccer players, but there are also promises of basketball or handball. In addition, there is a growing presence of girls, after Barça's commitment to its women's soccer team.

“Here you can see in the dining room a small soccer player eating next to a huge basketball player. And one is from southern Spain and the other from Croatia,”said a club communications manager during a visit by a group of journalists, including People en Español.

Broken toys

Everyone, whatever they do or come wherever they come from, submit to what Barcelona calls Masia 360: educating the person and training the player. Without one, there is no other, to prevent those boys so full of hope from ending up as "broken toys" if the future is twisted.

The cub considers that "it is not just about being the best recruiting children, you have to have respect for these children, for what their lives and their families will be", since "it is a great responsibility" to be in charge of these minors during the 10 months that the season lasts.

Each child who lives inmates has a tutor in charge of their psychological, emotional and academic training, in addition to managing communication between the player, the parents and the team. It is a complicated relationship, since minors pay the high price of separating from their families to be in a club like Barça.

"I spent the worst day of my life at the Masia", confesses Iniesta in his autobiography, remembering how at the age of 12 he had to leave his family in tears in his native Fuentealbilla, in southern Spain, to join Barça. Then the residence was next to the Barcelona stadium, the Camp Nou, and it was an old farmhouse, a name with which in Catalan is called a country house.

Each call at night to his parents was a drama, recognizes Iniesta himself, who left the club this May after 22 years wearing the Blaugrana shirt and become a benchmark for the little ones who are now starting out on the same path.

Treating these children for what they are, children, is something that those responsible for Blaugrana grassroots football say they are very clear about. "Eating, playing and loving is important when you are a child," said the head of communications, who asked that he not be identified. “The most important thing is not to earn money, but to live. If you don't do the things you had to do when you were a child, you will want to do them when you are an adult, when it is no longer playing.”

Cornerstone of player training is their academic education. From 11 to 16 years old they go to a school with which Barcelona have an agreement to allow them to start the school day earlier and return to the Masia in time for afternoon training.

From the age of 16, when the training sessions are more intense, the school goes to the Masia and the young people go to class in some classrooms in the same residence.

The emphasis on education is not trivial, since experience has taught the club that some of these young people, due to various circumstances, may not end up having a career as a professional footballer or have it very short, playing in teams from lower divisions and earning little money.

If they don't study, what will their future be off the court? “You are 18 years old, you play with the Spanish team, with FC Barcelona, but what if at 25 you are playing in the third [division of the Spanish League], you do not earn much money and you have nothing to lean on. That is why the two trajectories are very important”, highlights the representative of Barcelona.

Psychologist drivers

Even the little ones who do not reside in the Masia, as was the case with Messi and Piqué, are also followed up to gauge their well-being. An example: the club offers a transport service to families living up to 2 hours from Barcelona that picks up their children to take them to train in the fields of La Masia and returns them at night. Those 10 drivers who take these routes, and who therefore spend a lot of hours with the children, receive training to detect problems, be they sports or emotional.

If day after day they see that nobody comes to pick up the children when they leave them at home, that could be an alert signal that something is happening, to give an example. Those drivers turn the truck into a kind of confessional in which the little one ends up sharing what he does not dare to say to his coaches or his parents.

If he is a balanced person, he will be a balanced player. If his personal life is not going well, his game is not going well”, highlights the club.

The training extends to parents, who are taught how to handle the feeling of success and failure their children may experience depending on how their career is going. It is possible that a child who entered at the age of 12, at the age of 14, is no longer in the Masia for sporting reasons. Fitting that setback and overcoming the feeling of defeat, both for the player and his family, is extremely important -according to Barça- because there are many who arrive with the hope of being the next Messi, but very few succeed.