Football Field

Apparently they have a total of approximately 260 youth players learning their trade here - Ninety percent of them are Spanish and more than 50 percent Catalans. In fact the current Barca team have 12 first team players who have come from the academy. There are several youngsters that had lived at La Masia have gone on to play for the first team, such as Josep “Pep” Guardiola (academy years 1984-90), Ivan De la Pe a (1991-94), Carles Puyol (1994-98), Andres Iniesta (1996-2001), V ctor Valdes (1996-2000) and Lionel Messi (2000-04). Pep was touted as La Masia’s greatest product. A charismatic player who played 43 caps for Spain and won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He led the club to six La Liga titles, one Champions Cup in 1992 and two Spanish Cups. Puyol, a native Catalunyan, is the club current skipper and heading towards his 250th game for the club. However not all the graduates of La Masia established themselves at Barcelona and some have moved to other clubs to a …