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La Masia: Barcelona's Youth Academy

La Masia was created in 1979 as the place where Barcelona could develop young players, it is both a school in the academic sense and a place where young player can learn the Barcelona system.

And it seems to work. Players like Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta all lived and learned at La Masia, or the farmhouse as it's called.

The idea of the youth training center and development system was proposed by Johan Cruyff, who was a product of a similar system himself, with the Ajax academy.

"Youngsters need opportunities — everyone needs time," former Barcelona player Guillermo Amor told The Associated Press. "With all conditions being equal, a homegrown player has a better chance than one who comes in from abroad. The Xavis and Iniestas took 10 years to get to where they are."

The school trains over 300 select players, with some living in La Masia houses, others in housing near the stadium, and the rest living in and Barcelona in their own housing.

The youngest players at the academy are 6 years old. Barcelona have scouts looking for players throughout Spain and the world.

As a coach, Guardiola was instrumental in improving Barcelona's youth teams and the second team. He ask for better training faciliites and helped the B team get back into the Segunda B.

Much of the success of Barcelona has been attributed to the building up of one concept of play. All young players learn the idea of total football, where players can move from one position to another. And, to the idea of one and two touch passing, which is also know as the tiki taka style of play.

"This Barcelona team is made up of a lot of people from La Masia, and that's an important factor in our success, because we know each other for such a long time." - Andres Iniesta

At the base of this is the technical ability to play one and two touch soccer and play that some way whether you're a forward or a defender. At La Masia, the players ablity on the ball is central to their development.

Some of the Barcelona's past and current players who were trained at La Masia:

• Josep Guardiola
• Carles Puyol
• Cesc Fabregas
• Xavi
• Andres Iniesta
• Lionel Messi
• Pedro Rodriguez
• Gerard Pique
• Sergio Busquets
• Mikel Arteta
• Bojan Krkic
• Thiago Motta
• Pepe Reina
• victor Valdes
• Giovani Dos Santos

Image Source: Getty Images