FCBARCELONA.CAT

29.04.2009 17:47

Home-grown talent shines for Barça

Jaume Marcet

The big match against Real Madrid is just a few days away and it’s a good moment to compare the two squads. If we consider the importance of home-grown players we see that Barça clearly comes out on top.

The safe hands of Valdés, the power of Puyol, the elegance of Piqué, the creativity of Xavi and Iniesta and the ball skills of Messi – these are all essential components of the current Barça side. But Madrid also have their home-grown stars – the agility of Casillas, the imagination of Guti (injured on Wednesday) and the goal scoring capacity of Raúl.

However, if we take a look at the statistics, it’s clear that home-grown players play a bigger role for Barça than for Real Madrid.

Matches and minutes

In terms of minutes played, two products of the Real Madrid youth system figure among the top eleven - Casillas and Raúl. Way down the list in 15th place comes a third academy graduate – Guti.

By contrast Barça can count on no fewer than six home-grown regulars in the starting line-up - Valdés, Puyol, Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi – while a seventh, Busquets, is in thirteenth place in terms of minutes played in the league.

Goal scorers

Real Madrid’s top scorer is youth team product Raúl with 18 goals, three fewer than Leo Messi, who with 21 goals is the highest scorer among Barça’s home-grown talent.

Collectively, the Barça players also come out on top. Together they have scored 35 goals (37% of the total) compared to the 22 goals (28% of the total) scored by Real Madrid’s youth system stars.