La Masía has always been a hive of great footballers. From there came names like Puyol, Iniesta, Piqué, Xavi, Guardiola or Messi himself. He is also a player shaper. Nevertheless, the first Ballon d’Or in Spanish women’s football, Alexia Putellas spent a year in the Barça academy, but had to leave as they did not have teams in her category. Now, the club has several teams of all ages, the players can live in La Masía and work is done in the same way as with the boys. The fruits have arrived a long time ago, but the tree continues to give great joy.
Against Madrid CFF and with the league already in his pocket, Jonatan Giráldez did not hesitate to give ownership to three young academy players. Maria Perez, Ona Baradad and Esther Labordewho made their debut in the top flight, started from the start in order to rest important players. In the 60th minute, Julia Bartel also came out to have four academy players on the pitch at the same time. Ona Baradad, who had already enjoyed the starting role on another occasion, and María Pérez, in addition, played the 90 minutes. A demonstration of confidence in the quarry.
La Masía is being important in the formation of this unstoppable Barcelona. In fact, in the eleven against Madrid CFF, In addition to the three academy players, there were three other players trained in the academy who are already part of the first team: Leila Ouahabi, Gemma Font and Claudia Pina. We don’t count Melanie Serrano, although we could because she made her debut in the Barça first team at the age of 14, but he started playing in his native Lebrija. They are not the only academy players in the Barça first team.
Gemma Font, Jana Fernández, Leila Ouahabi, Aitana Bonmati, Claudia Pina and Bruna Vilamala trained at La Masía and they are already first-team players in their own right. We do not count, as we say, Melanie Serrano or Alexia, despite the fact that she spent a year in the Barça youth academy, she trained at Espanyol.
The academy players will have more prominence between now and the end of the season, although they have already been having minutes. Ona Baradad, only 17 years old, has already participated in five league games with a total of 192 minutes, two of them as a starter, and has scored a goal. María Pérez has 130 minutes in four games. TMaría Molina, Martina Fernández and Ornella Vignola have also debuted. La Masía continues to produce great footballers, not only those who play for Barcelona. Ona Batlle, from Manchester United, Paula Fernández, from Rayo Vallecano, Candela Andújar, on loan at Valencia, Emma, on loan at Real Sociedad, Laia Aleixandri, from Atlético… the names are many and the list continues to grow…