5 players who made their mark as a teenager at Barcelona
They say that experience is the key for any team to be successful. Indeed, according to Alan Hansen, a team can’t win anything with ‘kids’. As it turns out, though, they just might as the right blend of youth and experience is what helps to form a winning unit.
Indeed, if the youth players are never tested at all, how could they grow up to be stars? Joke’s on you, Mr. Hansen.
Barcelona’s youth academy, La Masia, is regarded as one of the best in the world because of its ability to produce world-class talents. Indeed, Barcelona’s best ever time was led by the youth academy products like Carles Puyol, Sergio Busquets and others.
Such was the aura that their golden generation oozed that La Masia became a point of reference for the other clubs to follow. The current scenario of the club might say otherwise, but it is more to do with the club not being able to hold its best youth gems than the academy not producing any.
As we all know, La Masia has produced some of the finest players in the world that debuted for Barcelona in their teens and went on to become some of their most successful players ever. So here is a list of 5 players that succeeded at Barcelona after making their debuts as teenagers:
#5 Andres Iniesta
We begin our list with one of football’s greatest midfielders ever. Andres Iniesta is a prodigy of La Masia who went on to establish himself as Barcelona’s best attacking midfielder of the modern era.
The 33-year-old made his debut in 2002 aged 18 and hasn’t looked back ever since. He might not be the player that he once was, with reports suggesting that the Barca board would have sold him had it not been for new manager Ernesto Valverde’s obstruction, but he remains an icon of the club.
In his time with the Blaugrana, he has won eight La Ligas, five Copa Del Reys and four Champions Leagues coupled with two Euros and a World Cup for Spain, where he scored the winning goal in the final against Netherlands.
He began his Barcelona journey as a kid and he shall end it as a legend.