“I feel Flick’s trust and I want to stay in Barça’s first team,” said yesterday Xavi Espart, a versatile right-back aged 19 who can also play as a defensive midfielder, a position with which, for example, he won the U-19 European Championship with Spain. “Being here is a great opportunity to earn a place in the first team,” agreed Álvaro Cortés, a 21-year-old center-back, beside him.
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Both academy players, who are part of the 17 young players these days working harder than ever to convince Flick that they are the future, have plenty of reasons to believe. The emergence of increasingly precocious footballers, such as Lamine Yamal, who debuted at only 15 years old, or Pau Cubarsí, who did so at 16, has highlighted a paradigm shift in Barça football. They are joined by other recent cases, such as Fermín López, recovered after his loan to Linares, or Marc Bernal, who broke into the first team at 17 years old.
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The elevator between La Masia and the first team is more active than ever. At Barcelona, they understand that great prospects arrive earlier to the elite and that, therefore, the sporting, contractual, and patrimonial monitoring must be unified from the age of 16, when players can already sign their first professional contract for a maximum of three seasons, until they reach adulthood. From this arises a reorganization of the football structure, approved at the last board meeting.
Although Deco, the club’s sporting director, gains prominence, the goal goes far beyond strengthening his figure: it is about definitively integrating Barça Atlètic into the first team structure so that the entire development chain operates under a single sporting, economic, and operational criterion. From now on, Deco and his right hand, Bojan Krkic, will have a direct impact on the day-to-day of Barça Atlètic and will work in coordination with Hansi Flick and Juliano Belletti, the reserve team coach, to decide not only the squad planning but also which players train or compete with the first team. At the physical level, loads will be controlled so that players are available to Flick.
The emergence of Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí, or Bernal has accelerated the model change
João Pedro Amaral, head of scouting, will also participate in this working group. Meanwhile, José Ramón Alexanko will focus his duties exclusively on youth football, up to Juvenil A.
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Beyond integrating criteria, one of the reasons for this reorganization is to shield La Masia’s talent against an increasingly competitive market. Clubs like Manchester City have built a network of associated entities – with Girona as one of the examples of the City Football Group – that allows them to loan players, control their development, and maintain buy-back and repurchase mechanisms. Paris Saint-Germain has also developed similar formulas in France.
Barça, on the other hand, does not have a multi-club structure and therefore considers that Barça Atlètic must assume that strategic role: becoming the natural development platform and, when necessary, managing loans that allow maintaining control over players through buy-back options or preferential rights. In this context, Brexit has also played in Barcelona’s favor. The UK’s exit from the European Union has made it harder for English clubs to freely sign under-18 players from EU countries, reducing one of the main threats.
Barça integrates Barça Atlètic into the first team structure to unify control criteria
At the same time, the club has intensified the recruitment of emerging talent both in Spain and abroad by signing players with a wide growth margin. The arrival this summer of 18-year-olds like Jesse Bisiwu or the signing of Hamza Abdelkarim are good examples of this strategy.
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Flick’s presence completes the model reinforcement. The coach has shown since his arrival that he is not afraid to bet on young players with 12 debutants on his list. Today, they all feel that whatever Barça decides will be best for them.
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