Barcelona’s academy talents Marc Guiu and Lamine Yamal show La Masia DNA remains key to the club’s success | Football News – Canada Boosts

Thirty-three seconds. That’s all that 17-year-old Marc Guiu wanted to attain on his debut for Barcelona final month. His mom was in tears. Xavi was vindicated. Simply the newest instance of the membership’s belief in La Masia, their famed academy, being rewarded.

There’s Gavi and there’s Pedri, there’s Lamine Yamal and there’s Fermin Lopez. Now, there’s Guiu. His Instagram account had 44,000 followers earlier than that kick of the soccer. Inside hours, it had topped a million. One other in a single day success story, or so it appears.

The reality is slightly totally different.

“Now, everybody is talking about Marc Guiu,” Albert Capellas tells Sky Sports activities. “But he arrived at the club 10 years ago when he was seven years old. That means that the club has had to wait 10 years before he could play for the first team. It is a long time.”

Capellas spent greater than a decade working in Barcelona’s academy himself. He was there when Xavi, Andre Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and, in fact, Lionel Messi, reworked the sport and confirmed that could possibly be accomplished with a crew constructed round academy graduates.

He doesn’t speak of teaching these greats however studying from them. “I trained Iniesta for several years and I always say that Iniesta came into this world to show us how to play football. It is the same with Busquets. You do not correct them. They show you the way.”

And but, he is aware of how tough it’s to go on that journey by means of Barcelona’s academy. Particularly when it’s so tempting for golf equipment to go for a faster repair. “In football, you do not get time, and that makes these long-term projects more difficult to achieve,” says Capellas.

“This is why it makes sense for clubs to start with a different strategic model to Barcelona. Because when they sign players at 16, if they are very good they can play for the first team in a few years. You can get the advantage from your investment very quickly.”

With Guiu, appreciable endurance was required. “When he was young, he could not play because he had problems growing. He had pain in his knees and there was a long period, from the age of 13 to 15, when he could not train and he missed a lot of games.”

That would have been that if the tradition had been totally different. “At a lot of clubs, if you cannot train or play, you have to leave the club. At Barcelona, we know the level of the players. We give them time. We do not take these crazy decisions on young players.”

Maybe it’s that longevity at La Masia that helps make the distinction in the long run. An adolescent signed from elsewhere is perhaps a surer factor, however they’d not be steeped within the model of play, the philosophy and values that Capellas and others take such pleasure in.

“Johan Cruyff showed us the way to have success,” he explains.

“There are a lot of things involved when we talk about DNA. The first team, the academy, the way of developing young players, the way of playing, the way of thinking, the way of making decisions, the way of scouting. Cruyff changed everything at the club.

“The very first thing that he modified was the profitable mentality of everybody on the membership. When he arrived, we have been completely satisfied to win one cup each two or three years. The second factor is that he was there eight years. That’s loads of time to indicate everybody how he thinks.

“All of the academy teams were playing in the same way as the first team, with the same concepts, the same way of thinking, the same drills, the same exercises. After eight years of everyone working in the same direction, you could see how powerful that was.

“It’s one factor to inform a participant to scan round. It’s one other to create an surroundings in coaching that you simply pressure the gamers to scan round. As a result of in soccer, it’s not about what you already know, it’s about what you do. What we create in Barcelona is an surroundings.

“Everybody knows that you need a good body shape, for example. The difficult thing is to make it happen. At Barcelona, we train in a way that our players learn how to position themselves better. To instil this in their muscle memory so that it becomes automatic.”

The result’s that what would possibly seem from the surface to be the most important step is extra easy than it’d seem. Ansu Fati scored inside per week of his debut aged 16. Lamine was the identical age when he was man of the match in simply his second begin.

“Barcelona are never afraid to give opportunities to players from the academy because they are educated in the club’s way of thinking so when they arrive to the first team, it is very easy for them. They have lived with this kind of pressure all of their lives.

“After I would speak to gamers from the academy who got their likelihood within the first crew, they’d say, ‘Albert, it’s a lot simpler than enjoying for the academy.’ In fact. You’re surrounded by higher gamers and you’re a good participant so it’s simple for you.

“When you get the ball, the other players are always available in open lanes for the passes. When you receive a pass, it is always a good pass. Never a bouncing ball. Always to the correct foot with the right timing. Look at Marc Guiu’s goal against Athletic.

“Why did he have success? As a result of he had Joao Felix subsequent to him who might see the cross on the proper time with the best velocity. That’s the reason he had the prospect as a result of he had the gamers round him. In fact, he nonetheless needed to end the prospect and he did it nicely.”

Capellas returned to Barcelona for a 3rd stint inside the academy in 2021, working carefully with this present crop of younger expertise, earlier than departing as soon as extra. Barcelona will at all times be his membership. Which explains his stance when that DNA is questioned.

Former participant and supervisor Ernesto Valverde did simply that earlier this yr, suggesting that the Cruyff DNA was overplayed. “Having had him as a coach leaves its mark on you,” stated Valverde.

“But the DNA thing is a bit of a myth. When a good player emerges, they say, ‘He has Barcelona DNA’. When there is a bad player, ‘That one doesn’t have the DNA’.”

These phrases induced a stir in Catalunya.

“I understand his comment because when I watched his team play when he was coach of Barcelona he was not playing that Barcelona style,” says Capellas.

“It was a good style and he won trophies. He had some success. Fair enough. It is not a problem. But it is not the way that we play football at Barcelona. In the period of Valverde, he did not give opportunities to the young players. That is also not our style.

“What I can not settle for is when he says it’s a fable. It’s not a fable. It is rather essential for us and we consider in it profoundly and deeply. It’s not an issue for me that he feels that means. What I don’t settle for is that he undervalued what is going on in La Masia.”

What is going on at La Masia is that one other wave of expertise is rising. Capellas is happy concerning the “exceptional” Lamine. “I do not want to compare him to Iniesta or to Messi but I can say that he is a very special player who will make the difference in football.”

Guiu has totally different qualities. “He is not a player with unbelievable dribbling skills but he is a finisher who can run from deep. He is fast, powerful, very good at heading, very competitive. He is exceptional in his position and has the right mentality, a fantastic boy.”

Given the monetary restrictions at Barcelona, might the academy be their salvation once more? “Without money, the academy is even more important. Our best periods have always been the same way. Fifty per cent from the youth team supplemented by the best.”

“It is not just about having the idea, you have to convince the people around the club, build the story, build the values of the club. Not just with coaches but with scouts and parents and agents, everyone. You have to create a culture. That takes years and years.

“When the unhealthy moments come and also you do not need success, you lose years when you change path. If that doesn’t work and also you wish to come again to the unique path, you might have misplaced years too. It’s about staying robust when issues usually are not going nicely.”

After which, after 10 years, or 33 seconds, you obtain your reward.