Football Wonderkid Scout

Thiago Alcantara:

The 18 year-old central midfielder was described by Real Madrid legend Fernando Hierro as the best Spanish prospect around and has already been linked to Chelsea.

Marc Muniesa:
The central defender who is 17 years-old has already played in La Liga and is a massive talent and considered a future regular at the Catalan giants. Capped up to Under 17 level.

Marc Batra:

The 19 year-old can play at centre back or at full-back and is regarded as a big talent who has been unable to breakthrough due to the form of Puyol and Pique. Linked with rivals Real Madrid.

Gai Asulin:
Hailed as the next Lionel Messi, the 18 year-old midfielder is already capped by Israel at international level. Currently being watched by Arsenal as his contract talks stall.

La Masia is the most legendary football youth academy in the world. Superstars to have graduated in recent years include Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas to name just a few. La Masia is the name given to FC Barcelona's training facilities located near the Camp Nou in the Les Corts district of Barcelona. It It is an ancient country residence built in 1702 and once Camp Nou was inaguarated in 1957, the building was remodelled and extended for use as the clubs social headquarters under the presidency of Enric Llaudet. As the club grew and different offices were established, it became apparent that La Masia was no longer big enough, and under Agusti Montal, they were moved to area now next to the ice rink. So, La Masia was once against disused until Josep Lluís Núñez assumed the presidency and immediately found a new purpose for the building. In 1979, La Masia became the residence of young players from outside of Barcleona. The residence is used to to develop the young players that have had to leave their familities in order to train at Barcelona. La Masia consists of two floors and houses 60 youngsters (12 sleep at La Maisa itself and another 48 in other rooms situated around the stadium). It has a kitchen, dining room living room, library, office, bathrooms, showers and four large dormitories with dressing rooms. Of this number, ninety per cent are Spanish and 50 per cent of those are Catalans. At the 18th-century country house there are 70 staff taking care of the boys aged between 11 and 18. Included among the sataff are coaches, doctors, nutritionists, cooks, physios and psychologies. The youngsters do not lack attention which is something Barcelona are keen to embrace so that they have something to fall back on if they don't make it in football.

At La Masia, children are brought up to play the most beautiful version of the game and are taught the skills and discipline necessary to make them into legends. "The player who has passed through La Masia has something different to the rest, it's a plus that only comes from having competed in a Barcelona shirt from the time you were a child," says Pep Guardiola, Barcelona manager and a La Masia graudate. Another La Masia graduate Gerard Pique goes on to say, "You feel the colours, the club and its crest. Above all it's about values not only in football but on a personal level. I think the fans feel more connected to the team because of all the home-grown players." Sporting director Txiki Begiristain sums up La Masia's importance by saying, "The kids here are brought up to demand victory evne in friendly matches. Take a look at Lionel Messi, he's from Argentina but he comes with the samp of La Masia, he was formed in our house." Since moving the social headquarters and turning La Masia into a factory for producing some of the world's greatest football talents, more than 500 boys have spent their teenage years at La Masia. The aim is to produce outstanding football talents playing an attractive and attacking style of play, using short-one or two-touch passes. Representatives from around the world including Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham, Stuttgart and Bordeaux are among those to have isited the academy in the past few years to see how it works. Costing Barcelona £5 million a year to run, players are given scholarships so there is nothing to pay by their famalies. Academy directory, Carles Folguera explains, "The club pays for everything: food, boarch, teachers, teaching materials and also pays them a minimum wage so that they can buy refreshments in their breaks each day.". Most of the academic teaching is dine outside the old farmhouse and the boys are transported to normal schools each day as part of the plan to keep them grounde dbefore they spend the afternoons doing intense training back at camp. "I think the two most important qualities for the boys are comradeship and humility," adds Folguera. "These guys might have been chosen to be part of Barca but it is humility that earns you respect. We don't want them to go around talking about huge amounts of money. You can be humbled if your surrounding are, but its tough. But take Iniesta - he is not arrogant, he more or less goes unnoticed."

Helping boys to adapt and develop is a large part of the ethos at La Masia. Take Lionel Messi for example, he arrived at La Masia as a 13-year old boy in 2000 from Newell's Old Boys. Despite interest from Argentine powerhouse River Plate, they did not have enough money to pay for the $900 a month treatment for a growth hormone defficiency diagnosed at the age of 11. When he arrived at the Catalan club, Messi was just 4ft 6 inches, compared to average boy who was 5ft 5 inches, but the specialists soon sorted it out and Messi went on to score five goals on his youth team debut. "As a kid they teach you not to play to win but to grow in ability as a player," says Messi, who shared a room with a basketball player. That's because Barca is more than just a football club and La Masia bring through players for their handball, hockey and basketball teams too. La Masia is changing and the building that has been synonymous with Barca's rising stars will no longer accomodate youth players, who will eventually be moving on to San Joan Despi. Located in Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, the structure of the building will replace that of La Masia already in place. One of the big changes regaridng the project is that it will be made compatible with other uses. Not only will young residents stay there, but also adults. This will mean professional or international teams will be able to organise camps at thew new academy. To dealeal with the compatibility of uses, two floors will be used for this specific function, the basement (with a gymnasium, water area, dining rooms, audiovisual room, and others) and one at the very top with single rooms for 40 people and a massage parlour. These two floors link directly via elevators and will be accessed via different entrances to those used by the children.

Johan Cruyff, the Barcelona manager between 1988 and 1996, built his 'Dream Team' around La Masia products Pep Guardiola, Luis Milla, Guillermo Amor, Sergi Barjuan and Ivan de la Pena. Today, Guardiola, now the side's manager, probably has the two best passers in the world in Xavi and Andre Iniesta. The current Barca team who are aiming for a second successive La Liga and Champions League double, are packed with La Masia alumni included Victor Valdes, Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Bojan and Pedro. The one problem Barcelona have discovered, is keeping hold of these young talented men , notably the resources that English clubs have to throw silly amounts of money at them and promised filled vists from some of the top names in football, such as Sir Alex Ferguson's approach to take Gerard Pique to Manchester United and Arsene Wenger's attempts to successful lure Cesc Fabregas and Fran Merida to Arsenal. What should be noted is Barcelona's long running production line showing no signs of relent with a number of talents shining for the Spanish Under 17's at international level. In 2007, it was prodical son Bojan who starred for the Spain U17's at the European Championships as they defeated England in the final. Bojan came of age and shone just as he did a year earlier when he came top scorer at the 2006 Championships. Other La Masia graduates included Iago Falque who has since left to join Juventus, Fran Merida (now at Arsenal) and Cristian Valle. In 2008, the same success followed as Spain won their second successive Uefa U17 European Championships with Barcelona's academy playing a key part. Thiago Alcantara was arguably the star of the tournament but other youth included Martin Montoya, Oriol Romeu, Thiago Alcantara, Ruben Rochina, Alex Sanchez Benitez, Carles Planas and Adria Carmona. In 2009, Spain were hot favourites but crashed out at the group stages having not scored or conceeded a goal. Of note was Marc Muniesa who has long been tipped as a rising star in the game who has progressed through the ranks to the Barcelona Juvenil A team. He was joined in that defence by Sergi Gomez, Adria Blanchart and Albert Dalmau, all of Barcelona. Luis Enrique, formerly team-mate of manager Pep Guardiola, is now coach of Barcelona Atletic, formely known as Barcelona B. Currently sitting second in the league they are packed with up and coming talent ready to push on and make the breakthrough into Guardiola's first team plans. Marc Muniesa and Marc Bartra are widely considered future leaders of the Catalan club and will be hoping to catch the coaches' attention. Already stepping up for the 2009/10 season is Jonathan Dos Santos, Gai Assulin, Thiago Alcantara and Victor Vázquez having all been promoted by Guardiola.