Barcelona’s gamble on youth is paying off, but will it

Graham Hunter, Spain writerSep 16, 2024, 04:03 PM ET

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Hansi Flick admits that the “eureka!” moment when he promised that nothing would stop him one day becoming Barcelona coach was the night of March 21, 2006. He and 67,000 others were at Camp Nou to see Frank Rijkaard’s team beat Getafe 3-1 while the home crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to Ronaldinho, who turned 26 that day.

Cut to the present and Flick’s remarkably youthful team are top of LaLiga with a 100% record and he’s preparing for his Champions League debut as Barcelona coach at Monaco on Thursday — more of that in a moment.

Flick won’t know it, but there’s a sting in the tail if you compare his situation with Rijkaard’s Barça team that were en-route to becoming European champions against Arsenal in Paris. The context is this.

Flick saw Getafe go 1-0 up at Camp Nou that night thanks to a winger who had been the Lamine Yamal/Pedri/Gavi/Pau Cubarsí/Marc Casado of his day. His full name was Fernando Macedo Da Silva Rodilla — known as Nano.

Whilst in Barcelona’s academy, Nano lived at La Masia (the stone-built, centuries-old academy right next to Camp Nou, where true legends like Pep Guardiola and Andres Iniesta lodged as kids) and he attended individually-tutored secondary school classes with a kid called Mikel Arteta.

Wonder whatever happened to that saturnine Basque midfielder? (Hint: his team won the North London derby at the weekend.)

In 1999, Louis van Gaal had given Nano his Spanish SuperCup, LaLiga and Champions League debuts when, each time, the Galician became the youngest to wear Barça’s famous shirt in those competitions. Aged just over 17 and six months, Nano could play.

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When Flick went to Camp Nou 18 years ago as Nike’s special guest, he was inspired by a Barcelona XI containing only three Spaniards (compared to seven versus Girona on Sunday.) The youngest guy in Rijkaard’s team that night was a 23 year-old Brazilian, Thiago Motta, and the rest were mostly in their late 20s. Zero comparison to Flick’s array of teenagers.

When Nano was Barcelona’s 17 year-old “wonderkid,” the club secured his future with a multimillion euro, five-year contract — in the face of a big offer from Arsenal. The Galician teenager spent some of it, to huge criticism, on a soft-top two-seater Mercedes convertible, and also bought his own property in the city. But by the night Flick saw him provoking Barcelona into life for Bernd Schuster’s Getafe, he’d already been let go by the Catalans and by Atletico Madrid.

The comparisons between that version of Barcelona and the current one couldn’t be more stark.

Rijkaard, back in 2006, had both Iniesta and Lionel Messi breaking through, but used each of them conservatively. Don’t worry — it looked like madness then, not just now. Rijkaard didn’t feel the need to stick his neck out. So he didn’t.

In Iniesta’s case, the Barcelona coach drove one of Spain’s greatest footballers to despair and, later that season, benched him for the Champions League final. Let’s not even talk about Messi’s absolute fury to find Rijkaard had dropped him from the squad for that final.

Back then, in reserve, the club had old hands like Xavi, Edmilson, Henrik Larsson, Sylvinho and Rafa Marquez to call on. Rijkaard saw the academy lads as luxuries.

By the end of Barcelona’s 4-1 win at Girona on Sunday, Flick’s unused subs included an 18-year-old Miami-born goalkeeper, a 19-year-old defender, and an attacking midfielder who only turned 16 last month. While the coach had already brought on an 18-year-old full-back, plus two other players with just three first-team starts between them. That’s in context of the starting XI already containing Yamal (17), Pedri (21), Cubarsí (17), Alex Balde (20), and Casadó (who turned 21 last week.)

Flick promoted Guille Fernández, that 16-year-old on the bench I mentioned, to the first team for Girona largely because his 16-year-old cousin Toni Fernandez, a left-footed striker who most of Europe’s footballing elite wanted to pinch from Barcelona this summer, was suffering minor back pain. Otherwise Toni, who has got a goal a game for Barcelona B this season, would have been the Fernandez in that squad.

The three main questions this inspires are: how does Barcelona’s youth system keep finding and developing such gems when La Masia suffers cutbacks and constant changes of coaches? Good scouting and the allure of the brand name are the keys. But the results are still phenomenal.

Next question: why, then, does the club, at regular intervals spend so atrociously badly in the transfer market that they’re over €1 billion in debt? Greed, vanity and stupidity, in my opinion.

And, how much can truly be expected of such a youthful squad this season — without evoking Alan Hansen’s “you can’t win anything with kids” which he snarled out on BBC’s Match of the Day programme when a youthful Manchester United — fielding would be known as the Class of ’92 — were beaten at Aston Villa on the opening day of season 1995-96.

Well, beginning in Monte Carlo on Thursday, and again on Sunday at Villarreal (watch live on ESPN), we’ll see.

Right now, from the latter part of Ronald Koeman’s reign at Barcelona, through Xavi placing huge faith in Gavi and Pedri plus giving debuts to Lamine, Balde and Cubarsi, it seems that if you’re over 14, can kick the ball straight and you’re anything over 5-foot-5 then there’s a chance you’re training with the first team — maybe even playing.

Not all the young talents currently pulling on the first-team jersey at Barcelona will make it there long term. But most will and, mark my words, in no time you’ll be admiring the Fernandez cousins, Unai Hernandez, Orian Goren and Pedro “Dro” Fernandez. Five very special talents — all of whom, except 19-year-old Hernandez, are 16.

Barcelona’s academy players are getting their opportunity to shine this season after a strong start in LaLiga. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Nano’s Barcelona experience is a metaphor for Arteta, Sergio Garcia, Bojan Krkic, André Onana, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique, Dani Olmo and Xavi Simons — all of whom, back in the day, quit their parent club ridiculously early because they believed, or were told, that they’d not be given enough faith or playing time.

Remarkable.

I think Fabregas, a youth academy superstar at Barcelona, lifting copious trophies in teams with Messi and Pique, who jumped ship to Arsenal because by 16 he had already lost faith that he’d be promoted to Barça’s first team sufficiently quickly, explains it best.

Talking to the BBC last week he said: “Barcelona’s economic problems meant they were forced to start playing all the young players. Look at them now — a few years later! The young players keep coming. Flick keeps putting in two or three more. And after Xavi put Lamine Yamal in the team two years ago aged 15, maybe he’s now worth €120m?

“The clubs and the players gain the experience in this process but it’s the coaches who sometimes pay the price. When Chelsea were banned from signing players [Frank] Lampard started playing youth team guys like Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Reece James. Who was sacrificed because of results? Frank Lampard. The kind of time you Arsene Wenger was allowed to show me — that doesn’t exist now. Only when a club is forced to — like Barcelona. So, all of a sudden, there’s 10 young players from 16 or 17 years old who can play for the first team and everyone’s saying ‘how amazingly they are doing!!’

“Well, no! If Barcelona had hundreds of millions then they’d probably invest in the new Neymar or Ronaldinho. I believe that there is so much more potential for players to start younger and younger and that they are much more ready than I was at their age.”

We are all on a voyage of discovery. It’s extraordinarily rare for one of Europe’s elite clubs to be so reliant on even sensationally talented young footballers. And, chances for revenge, and chances to re-measure yourself, don’t usually come around only weeks apart. But that’s what’s about to happen to Flick and his team.

In their season-opening Gamper Tournament friendly they were thrashed 3-0 by Monaco and made to look like callow youths. The German coach said that jet-lag and tiredness after their USA tour, then transatlantic flights home, were to fundamentally to blame.

Now he’s up against the Ligue 1 side again a mere 38 days later. A horrible pitch at Stade Louis II (it’s on the roof of their car park and indoor sports facilities!), good quality opponents and so many injury problems in Barcelona’s squad — what can Flick’s boys achieve? The kids are alright? Their, and our, learning continues.

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