FC BARCELONA

Italian media include the display of the youth ranks at Barça before an Italian side, where the overall baggage performance was an overwhelming 59 to 1.

Barça's cantera through the sweetest moment in recent years. The consolidation of many homegrown in the first team is just the tip of the iceberg of the great educational work played in the club's inferior categories in recent decades.

As revealed on Friday 'La Gazzetta dello Sport', a group of young Italians in Rome recently enjoyed four friendlies for three days in the Ciutat Esportiva of the FC Barcelona, ​​where they were impressed by the facilities and especially the talent that holds the Barca in their lower grades.

The background on the overall result of all the friendly was overwhelming. Barça scored 59 goals scored for only one against (10-0, 11-1, 32-0 and 6-0). However, players and technicians came out stronger from his visit to the facility, to be impacted by the work system azulgrana in their organization.

Roman team sources, called Futbolclub stated that the youth of the club "are extraordinary." But, most importantly, praise did not focus on specific players. "They emphasize not only individually, but they are few phenomena as a team." "His strength is playing the ball along the ground and 'dizzy' to rival" they said.

The same sources noted that at the lower azulgrana prevail "human qualities and skills to the physical" and defined the style, attitude and organization were the pillars of the work done daily at La Masia Barça surprisingly well by the ability of preparers to recreate unexpected game situations to practice and be prepared progressively for elite sport. (via SPORT)

FC Barcelona employees tour La Masía Centre de Formació Oriol Tort.

La Masía Centre de Formació Oriol Tort, boarding school and athletic academy, was inaugurated on October 21st, 2011. The opening ceremony was watched in over 150 countries through FC Barcelona’s official communication channels, including an online telecast.

Barça has opened the doors to the New Masía to the Club’s employees. In groups of 7 to 10, Club workers have been able to discover the modern installations that currently house 72 young athletes. Carles Folguera, La Masía director, has taken on the role of acting tour guide during employee visits. (via FCBarcelona.com)

As reported in yesterday's edition the newspaper 'As', Real Madrid plans to build a residence for the accommodation of theier youth football players from outside Madrid.

The same newspaper cataloging project, designed to accommodate from September 2013 to a hundred kids, as the 'Masía Blanca'.

The work is part of a macro project by Florentino Perez expected to build on the sports meringue Valdebebas a residence for the first team, the said residence to the cantera and a new building that would host the team's games of the basketball section .

Although the commitment of the last years of Real Madrid has been to invest large sums of money to buy players, the evidence of the results has forced Florentino to observe the success of the Barcelona model. And apparently, at least in regard to infrastructure, the coach of Real Madrid decided to acquire two years of a training center. Another thing is that you also do sports betting firm style of play and the players forged in the base to reach the first team. (via SPORT)

Barça’s first team met at La Masia. Centro de Formación Oriol Tort to have a group meal.

After the brilliant victory at the Bernabéu and this Thursday’s training session at the Ciutat Esportiva, Barça’s first team celebrated their recent success with a group meal, a fairly common occurrence in Can Barça. However, what was new about today’s traditional meal was the venue: for the first time the team ate in the dinning hall of the New Masía. Centro de Formación Oriol Tort.

The group luncheon also served as an introduction to the new facilities to some of the first team players. At the same time, some of the Masía-grown footballers took advantage of the situation to greet and meet with the workers and cooks that help run football boarding school.

None of the players recuperating from long-term injuries, David Villa, Ibrahim Afellay, and Andreu Fontàs, missed out on this afternoon’s luncheon. The Barça B players that were named to Barça’s Clásico squad were also present (Cuenca, Montoya, Sergi Roberto, and Dos Santos). (via FCBarcelona.cat)

Apart from the many home-grown players who are defending Barça’s European crown this season, there are six other players brought up through the Barça youth system who will be hoping to win the Champions League with their new clubs.

The success of La Masía academy is usually judged by the number of players who make it through the youth system right up to the Barça first team. However, for some years now, many talented young players have had to move away from the Club in order to find regular first team football. Six of these players - Arteta, Motta, Romeu, Miquel, Nolito and Urko – will be taking part in the next stage of the CL.

At the age of 29, Thiago Motta and Mikel Arteta are two of the most well-known players to have come out of the Barça youth system in the last decade. Motta, who played in the first team from 2001 to 2007, has already played twice for Inter in the Champions League this season while Arteta, who has replaced Cesc in Arsene Wenger's Arsenal, has taken part in five of the six matches so far.

Two other former Barça youth stars – twenty-year-old Oriol Romeu (Chelsea) and nineteen-year-old Ignasi Miquel (Arsenal) – have progressed from the group stage with their new clubs. Romeu is fast carving out a regular place in the Chelsea midfield and enjoyed 257 minutes of play during the group stage. Meanwhile, Miquel, a skilful centre back has remained on the fringes of the Arsenal team with just 39 minutes.

Nolito (25) moved from Barça B to Benfica in the summer and enjoyed an exceptional start to the season. A skilful winger, Nolito made his first team debut with Barça last season. Finally, Goalkeeper Urko Pardo (28), who never made it through to the Barça first team, is currently with UCL sensations Apoel Nicosia and played in four of the six group stage matches. (via FCBarcelona.cat)

“What I want for Christmas is Guardiola’s contract renewal to be signed,” said the Barça president.

On Neymar: “If we made a move for Neymar, I wouldn’t say so. That would hurt FC Barcelona”.

Rosell says that Abidal’s contract renewal is “immanent” and that Hleb will not join the team.

2011 is coming to an end at it’s time to evaluate the year. “The season already is a success. Not only because of the titles we’ve won, but how we’ve done it. The combination of both of these factors allows me to say that the season has been a good one, no matter how it ends. If we win the League or the Champions League, it would be excellent,” said President Rosell during the press conference at the Sala París. “You travel the world and everyone tells you that Barça is the best team in the world,” he added, visibly proud of the football Josep Guardiola’s team practices.

The manager was one of the main focal points of the press conference. “What I want for Christmas is Guardiola’s contract renewal to be signed,” admitted Sandro Rosell, who reminded the journalists that “this Board has extened his contract twice.” Conscious that this is a “personal” decision for Guardiola, he said, “he knows that he can sign for one, two, three or even four more years, until our term is up. He has a contract waiting for him ... we will do everything possible so that he cannot say no.”

Along these lines, the president admitted that “Zubizarreta is working diligently to plan the football team next year, and the next and the next, with the idea that Guardiola will stay, but you cannot plan without having a plan B just in case he decides to not continue.” If the manager doesn’t renew his contract, Rosell avoided words like “panic” or “fear” to define the situation that the Club would be in: “The Club is above any person. The day he leaves, we’ll all be sad but we won’t panic.”

Why should the manager renew his contract? The president was asked. “To be happy, for the group, for the results, for motivation, eagerness,” he responded.

The second name on everyone’s lips at the Sala París was Neymar. The Brazilian player has been linked to the Club by various news outlets. “He’s a Santos player until 2014 and, if Barça were interested, I wouldn’t say anything. If we made a move for the player, I wouldn’t say anything. The only thing that I would accomplish in saying anything on the subject would hurt Barça’s interests and I won’t say anything that would damage the Club,” he said.

President Rosell said that the institutional ties with Real Madrid were improving. “I think they have improved. This happens with time. Now we have the correct institutional relations with them,” he explained. Rosell went on to say, “the facts demonstrate that Real Madrid’s attitude towards Barça has changed. The tension from last year is gone. Those five games against them were not good.” Rosell said the Real Madrid’s President, Florentino Perez, wished Barça luck in the Club World Cup after the victory at the Bernabéu (1-3) and he sent a congratulatory letter to the Club after the victory in Japan. On Mourinho’s comments, Rosell simply said that “that’s part of the world of football.”

President Rosell said that Éric Abidal is very close to signing a contract extension with FC Barcelona. “We’ll soon announce Abidal’s contract renewal. There are some fiscal loose ends that need to be addressed, mainly because his tax status has changed. We have to give him a contract that adheres to the law. He had the Beckham law now it’s time to redo it. It’s right around the corner,” he said. He also talked about Alexander Hleb, who could leave Wolfsburg, the team that currently has him on loan. “If he returns, we’ll have to find him a way out,” said Rosell.

Sandro Rosell confessed that it would be a “dream” to see a final will 11 players from the Masía in the starting lineup, something that could happen in any Barça game. “This isn’t our main objective, it’s to form, create players,” he indicated.

The Masía, however, will be a protagonist at the FIFA Ballon d’Or gala when Xavi and Messi, along with Cristiano Ronaldo, will be named among the three best players in the world. Any preference? “I want Messi or Xavi or Xavi and Messi to finish first and second. Any Barça player winning it would satisfy me,” said Rosell.

Lastly, the president talked about the proposal to shorten the Liga schedule to grow the Champions Leauge. “We must work with the international schedule because it’s not optimal. We must redesign the Champions League and reduce the national competitions. A complete overhaul is needed for the schedule and the competitions,” he said. (via FCBarcelona.cat)

La Masia dominates Club World Cup. Three home grown players also the scorers: Messi, Xavi and Fàbregas.

FC Barcelona won the Club World Cup in Japan today with nine of the starting eleven players the product of the Club's academy system – a great confirmation of the Club's commitment to its home grown players. What's more, all the goals were scored by players from La Masia - Messi, Xavi and Fàbregas, who dominated the middle alongside the three other Masia graduates, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets.

As if to mark the opening of the Club's new training centre in Sant Joan Despí, which is dedicated to Oriol Tort, a team which bore the stamp of his commitment to the youngsters at La Masia took the Club World Cup in Japan. Of the starting 11, only Abidal and Alves have not been groomed at the Club, with Valdés, Piqué, Puyol, Busquets, Thiago, Xavi, Fàbregas, Iniesta and Messi representing La Masia, as well as five more graduates - Oier, Cuenca, Dos Santos, Fontàs and Pedro on the bench meaning that 14 of the 22 man squad for the game have come up through the Club's youth sides.

In the semi final of the competition , Barça started against Al-Sadd with six La Masia graduates, who were joined by Cuenca in the second half after Alexis Sánchez was forced off.

For most of the players who have come up through the ranks, this is the second time they have won this title, having been involved in the 2009 triumph against the Argentinean team Estudiantes. Cesc Fàbregas, Thiago, Cuenca and Oier were not in the squad then, but Jonathan Dos Santos did travel to the competition, though he didn't actually get on the pitch. (via FCBarcelona.cat)