Comments on: The Mini Estadi: The Jewel in Barcelona’s Crown

By: Varun

Varun — Mon, 30 May 2011 01:59:22 +0000

Few points i’ll make.

Barca B are currently 3rd in 2nd division, but won’t be promoted as pointed out.

While Barca B is where the talent is finally given the polish b4 they enter the 1st team its the lower youth levels where much is actually molded.

Watch out for new team, the current Juvenil A (U-17) team, became champions and remained undefeated throughout the year.
Its being compared to Barca’s class of 87 team (one which had messi, pique cesc)

About England,
i am not at all optimistic, people don’t have the guts to implement there,
they just get all defensive even when Germany was proposed as a model during the WC 2010.
Media just makes situation even worse.

ManU 90′s class while good wasn’t that good in terms of World Class, they only won 1 UCL and nothing at national level, while its admirable but its not on the same level as current Barca or Ajax in terms of influence.

About this 90mil. limit,
I am not convinced that its the limiting factor.

Players can still be developed, only about 500 players have ever graduated from LaMasia.

With all the passion that supposedly is present in England i doubt even in that 90mil area you won’t find 3 genuinely WC players who can get to 1st team, rest can be bought, and even Barcelona buy heavy every year.

By: Thomas Gaunt

Thomas Gaunt — Sun, 29 May 2011 11:59:29 +0000

Great article. Must admit didnt know about the 90 mile limit, seems ludicrous, but presumably players just move to within 90 miles then sign? I think the Youth system in England is a joke / disgrace. There must be klimitations put in place so that at least 75% of squad are British. The issue is the Premier League and greed, they want the best young players and will stop at nothing to poach them. The irony is that many of these 14/15 yr old genius’s never amount to anything and it is now young British talent that clubs want but then complain that it is too expensive! It is laughable, it is free to invest in 50-60 young british players over a 5-6 year period and you would probably get a better return, plus you will also then get the club loyalty which understandably some of the foreigners dont have. If Cesc goes to Barcelona who would blame him, Arsenal poached him in the first place. This all then leads to the England team being utter dogsh*t…. yet are we doing anything about it?? Nope!

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:52:16 +0000

I have to agree with you that the 90 mile restriction (I think it is roughly that) is far too much of a hinderance on teams, if the scouts are good enough to have found a player outwith the distance why shouldn’t a team be able to sign said player.

On the topic of Barcelona players such as Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Busquets, Xavi, Pedro and Bojan are all born in Catalunya, granted it is more thn 90 miles but it is still very much in the Barcelona area. The only Barcelona first team player who came through the youth team born in another region of Spain is Iniesta who is from Albacete ( about 300 miles from Barcelona) so a large proportion of the team is from immediatly outwith Barcelona and I am sure a lot of the youth team will be too.

By: Rob Durie

Rob Durie — Fri, 27 May 2011 10:40:43 +0000

Interesting article, but aren’t the English academies scouring the world because of the restrictions placed on them. Manchester United are only allowed to recruit young British players who live within some relatively short distance of Manchester. Presuambly this was done to allow small clubs to have some chance of getting local talent – pity the small clubs in the NW with Liverpool, Everton, United, City etc trawling the ground! As a result, to be competitive with Barcelona, United and other big English clubs are forced to look overseas for young talent. Yet another example of well intended regulations having unintended consequences.

I bet Barcelona have the best young players from all over Spain (not to mention Argentina with Messi being considered a local).