FC Barcelona: what makes them the best?

FC Barcelona are regarded as the greatest football side on Earth in the 21^st century. Most people consider them to be the best club side to ever grace the game; their ‘tika-taka’ style of play is breathtaking to watch and has bamboozled most teams that they have come across.

They’re a force to be reckoned with and only few can break the Catalan giants down like Chelsea did in the Champions League Semi Final, 2012. Why is this? What makes Barcelona so formidable?

La Masia.

La Masia, translated in English to ‘The Farmhouse’, is the highly decorated, much celebrated youth academy of FC Barcelona. It is located in the shadow of the famous Camp Nou stadium, the home of Barca, and it is where the club’s future stars call home in their teenage years as they seek to become dominant in the industry.

La Masia: where stars are born

The academy base has been in place since 1979 when the disused La Masia was put to good use by then club president Josep Lluís Núñez. The Spaniard assumed the presidency of the club in 1978 and reformed the building vacated by the previous president Agustí Montal as he moved the Barcelona social headquarters to a new venue. The transformation of La Masia was just under a year and October 20, 1979 was the date it was officially declared to house the young players outside Barcelona.

John Cruyff: the creator of La Masia

How did the idea of the academy come about? Netherlands’ hero and Barcelona legend, Johan Cruyff, created La Masia by modeling the similar approach founded by Dutch club Ajax.

Ajax’s academy known as ‘De Toekomst’ (‘The Future’ in English) consists of students aged 7 – 19 years old and is a prestigious academy recognised for producing talents such as Dennis Bergkamp, Wesley Sneijder, Clarence Seedorf, Frank De Boer and even Cruyff himself; the list of great names is continuous.

Technicality is noted as the most important thing in De Toekomst with passing, movement and finesse all being the main focus. As soon as you enter the academy, confidence on the ball is taught to try and develop skill as a player from a very young age; the idea is to encourage flair and play ‘total football’, a label that has attached itself to Ajax because of the way try and play. Specialised coaching is used to try and define the strengths of each individual and improve on the weaknesses that they possess in order for the youngsters to be more efficient footballers when they are older.

With both systems still in place today, why are Barcelona more successful in the present day than Ajax? In the early 1970s, Ajax retained their academy players and proceeded to have a very enjoyable period in their club’s history winning the European Cup three years running from 1970 to 1973. Now Ajax tend to offload their academy products for profit rather than hold on to their assets like Barcelona and build from the youth ranks.

Another perhaps more predominant reason is the use of the education system which Barcelona have adopted to help their youth players strive on the pitch and in academic work also. Cruyff was the believer of young players realising their potential as people alongside being sportsmen which is why La Masia accommodates for those scouted from overseas at a young age as well as those who live in and around Catalonia; the education provides players with a good ethos about the way they should behave within the club and in the outside world should they not reach professional standard.

The academy schedule is split evenly to coincide training, learning and down time; a typical day looking like this:

Having the players eat together, train together, relax together and sleep in the same residence as each other from a young age can only be a prosperous thing for the club; they will learn how each other acts and become a tight group on and off the pitch. Group cohesion is a massive part of success; if you know how your teammates click, you will always be one step ahead of your opponents and living together can certainly help with team bonding. Teams can be successful without the players having been with each other every day but the possibility of learning everything about all of your teammates is very unlikely.

The schedule above may seem pretty intense but it’s one that involves promoting the philosophy of the club. As mentioned previous, Barcelona play a ‘tika taka’ style of football; a positive, attacking game that relies on excellent passing and control. Not too dissimilarly to Ajax, the young academy members are drilled in these areas from an early age in order to be able to make the transition to the first team when the chance arises. Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez all came through La Masia and are well-established Barcelona players and International superstars; they wouldn’t be half as good if these skills had been drilled into them at a later age, say in their teens.

Messi, Xavi and Iniesta: three of La Masia’s  greatest graduates

The proof is in the pudding with regards to how good Barcelona have become thanks to La Masia. They’ve had scores in recent times such as 2-0 against historically English football’s best side, Manchester United, in the Champions’ League Final in 2009 with one of the goals being scored by graduate Messi and the 5-0 thumping of La Liga rivals and Galactico giants Real Madrid in 2010 where eight academy alumni appeared to only one of Madrid’s youth development system. The Madrid match alone demonstrates the importance of independence and the successful structure of which FC Barcelona have generated.

If more proof were needed to see why Barcelona’s current side is considered the most excellent team ever then look no further. Carles Puyol, Victor Valdes, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Pedro, Cesc Fabregas, Bojan, Jordi Alba, as well as already stated Xavi, Iniesta and arguably the planet’s supreme asset, Lionel Messi, all play for the Barcelona first team regularly and all have international recognition, mostly Spanish with the exception of Messi, proving that La Masia produces the finest players that can play at the top of their game.

The success of La Masia with relation to Barcelona’s achievements has spurred clubs worldwide to transform their academies into the same regard.

Manchester City are one club definitely keen to become the best in the world and through the wealth of their owners they have recently revealed plans of a brand new training ground facility which will have education resources available for their academy stars.

City Football Academy, as it will be known, is estimated to be completed by 2014 and will be the residence of 200 youth players much like La Masia. It’s the Citizens’ long term plan to be self-sufficient like Barca and keep in line with Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules.

The future of Manchester City

Former City and France midfielder Patrick Vieira, now in the role of Football Development Executive at the Etihad Stadium, has said it will be the ‘best in the world’ meaning City could potentially developing stars in the Messi mould very soon.

Does this emulation prove the success of the club and La Masia? Of course it does. Barcelona have proved that imitating a club can help you become the world’s greatest; Ajax were the paramount side in Europe and perhaps the world in the early 70’s hence Barcelona adopting their academy approach. Manchester City are merely realising that in order to be the best they need to concentrate on the unity of their teams all the way from the depths of the youth system.

Spending millions is all well and good as proved with City’s being crowned Premier League champions in 2011/2012 but there is only so much money you can spend before it all disappears, another reason for their future complex. City want to be the number one and their mirroring of La Masia only encourages the theory that FC Barcelona are currently at the summit.