FCBARCELONA.CAT

21.12.2009 22:16

Recognition for Barça youth academy

Vanessa Forns

Apart from the prestige of getting three of its players among the top five in the FIFA awards, FC Barcelona has the satisfaction of seeing the Club’s youth policy gain the recognition it deserves.

On Sunday Barça was crowned the best club in the World thereby putting the finishing touch to a unique year in which it has become the only club to win six trophies in one year. Now Barça has put three of its players -Messi, Xavi and Iniesta – among FIFA’s top five. And all three have been nurtured in Barça’s own youth academy.

Barça and the Golden Ball

However, the FIFA World Player is not the first award to come their way. At the beginning of December, Messi won the Golden Ball with 473 votes, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (233), Xavi Hernández (170) and Andrés Iniesta (149).

The spirit of Barça

Never before has one club supplied so many of the five nominees. However, what really stands out more than anything is that all three players were developed by the Club itself.

In this sense, these three players represented the spirit and identity of Barça here this evening in Zurich. The Barça youth academy, La Masia, has become a reference point for clubs around the World.

An inexhaustible supply of talent

The Barça youth academy is producing a seemingly inexhaustible supply of top class footballers and with Josep Guardiola in charge these youth players are being given their chance in the senior squad. In the final of the World Club Cup, six of Barça’s starting eleven were products of the academy. With Pedro and Jeffren coming on in the second half, there were no fewer than eight products of the youth system on display.