The young stars of FC Barcelona delight Europe – a similar development in clubs as FC Bayern is hardly imaginable.
FC Barcelona is not only back at the highest level of European football – his team is also reminiscent of the Spanish super club of the past.
Because in addition to expensive superstars, the team of Hansi Flick, who stretched its fingers in the showdown against Inter Milan on Tuesday evening after the final of the Champions League, has a lot of homemade potential.
La Masia, the famous academy, is again the foundation of the club. And in Europe’s envy.
Billions of debt rinse top talents to light
In addition to the all-shining Lamine Yamal, Fermín López, Pau Cubarsí, Dani Olmo or Alejandro Balde are regularly in the starting eleven from Flick. And will probably do so for a long time. Because they make their market values almost unaffordable at a young age.
The fact that those responsible in Barcelona rely on the youth so strongly emerged from necessity. Between 2017 and 2020 alone, the Catalans spent over 900 million euros for transfers. Only Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann already cost well over 300 million.
At the same time, Sergi Roberto was the only home in a period of ten years that could be found in the professional squad. Talents like Takefusa Kubo or Xavi Simons left the club due to a lack of perspective. It was a departure from the recipe for success of the past.
Expensive purchases, disproportionately high player salaries and other losses from the Corona pandemic brought the association over a billion euros in debt. Players like Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets even had to do without salary, while club legend Lionel Messi was forced to leave the club.
FC Bayern dreams of this development
It was only through the financial crisis that FC Barcelona had to rely on its own youth again – with success. Since 2020, more than 20 own plants have been debuting for the Catalans, including superstar Lamine Yamal. These numbers are strongly reminiscent of the golden era in Barcelona, which produced legends like Andrés Iniesta, Xavi or Lionel Messi.
Youth work in Barcelona also looks promising for the future. The U19 of FC Barcelona recently won the UEFA Youth League for the third time and is therefore the sole record winner in this competition.
Barcelona succeeds – forced or not – which seems impossible for many other top clubs.
An example: For some time now, FC Bayern also wants to rely more intensively on its own youth. “We want to be able to lead a talent to the first team every second year. It would be even better every year,” Hermann Gerland, at that time still sporting director in the offspring, had declared the opening of FC Bayern Campus.
Bavaria trains many Bundesliga players
This is clearly failing. The campus cannot keep up with La Masia in this regard. However, there are now at least measurable progress, even if they are rarely recognizable in the Munich professional squad.
FC Bayern has been training most Bundesliga players since the opening by 2024. According to the statistics of the kicker , 28 players who played in the youth teams of FC Bayern have made it into the Bundesliga during this period.
But: Many players who are at the threshold of the Bayern squad have to take detours first.