Barcelona's top 10 academy graduates
Barcelona are one of Europe’s biggest and most successful clubs, and while they’ve become renowned over the years for signing some of the world’s most highly-rated players – the likes of Luis Suarez and Frenkie de Jong for instance – they also have one of the world’s most successful academies.
La Masia has been a world-renowned production line for players for decades, opening back in 1979, and some of the greatest players in the history of the game have emerged from it and into the first team at the Nou Camp.
Here are the 10 best players to have graduated from Barcelona’s academy.
#10 Pedro
Signed by La Masia at the age of 17, Pedro made his way into Barcelona’s first team in the 2008-09 season after starring for Barcelona B in 2007-08, scoring 7 goals as the side achieved promotion from the Tercera Division. A pacy winger, the Spaniard made 14 appearances in Barca’s famous treble-winning season, but it was the following campaign in which he made a real impact.
Pedro played 34 games in La Liga, scoring 12 goals, and ended the season with a total of 23 strikes in all competitions. The following season saw him score 22, and while he hasn’t scored over 20 in a single season since, he continued to be a key man for La Blaugrana in the 4 seasons that followed. By the time his Barca career came to an end, he’d won 5 La Liga titles, 3 Champions Leagues and a further 12 minor trophies – as well as the World Cup and the European Championship with Spain.
The summer of 2015 saw the winger make a surprising move to Chelsea for a fee of £19m, and since moving to the Premier League he’s continued to find success – winning the Premier League title in 2016-17, the FA Cup in 2017-18 and the UEFA Europa League in 2018-19.