Lamine Yamal and the 'La Masia' Machine
How Barcelona maintains its world-class product despite its financial troubles
At 17, most teenagers are navigating high school. They are worried about the new zit on their nose, trying to impress their latest crush, or figuring out ways to get their hands on the newest video game. Their world revolves around weekend plans, curfews, and part-time jobs.
For Lamine Yamal, however, life looks drastically different. While his peers upload selfies to the internet, Yamal dazzles millions on soccer’s grandest stages. At an age where most are figuring out who they want to be, Yamal already knows: he’s one of soccer’s great young starboys.
As someone pointed out on X, Yamal was only 12 years old during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. If that doesn’t make you feel old, nothing will.
Lamine Yamal’s Accomplishments
In the past year alone, Yamal won Euro 2024 with Spain and became the face of FC Barcelona, one of soccer’s most storied clubs. He recently helped propel Barcelona past Real Madrid by a score of 4-0, an unexpected result given Real Madrid just came off a Champions League title and added Kylian Mbappé. Oh yeah, and Yamal passed his high school tests between all these accomplishments.
Yamal is the youngest player to debut for Barcelona, the youngest goal scorer in La Liga, the youngest player to start a Champions League match, the youngest goalscorer for Spain, and the youngest player to assist in a Euro match. He’s pretty young and pretty good.
Widely considered a top-10 winger in the world, Yamal has started this season hot out of the gates. If you compare some of his goal-contribution stats to some of the best right wingers in the game today, he is up there with the best of them.
And he shines across the board. Yamal is a solid passer and an outstanding dribbler. But his stats aren’t just reserved for the attacking third of the field. He is among the top tacklers, interceptors, and blockers for his position.
Lamine Yamal’s Potential
Yamal was only six years old when he was first discovered by Barça. From the outskirts of Barcelona in a coastal suburb, he was born to an immigrant family—his father’s country of origin being Morocco and his mother’s being Equatorial Guinea.
Yamal was a standout player from the very beginning. However, instead of the other kids catching him as they aged, Yamal only widened the gap between him and the other players.
Yamal made his first team debut at the age of 15, nine months, and 16 days old. It was a series of fortunate events (for Yamal) leading to his debut. After Ousmane Dembélé transferred to PSG and Raphinha picked up a red card in the first game of a new season, Yamal got his chance. After being given the opportunity, he continued to make an impact on the first team and molded himself to be the centerpiece he is today.
Yamal’s impact as a left-footed teenager always reminds viewers of a young Lionel Messi. Those around Yamal are quick to dismiss the comparison, but it's difficult not to at least consider it. Yamal still has a long career to play to be considered in the same breath as Messi, but he is well on his way. If you compare Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Yamal at similar ages, Yamal is a step or two ahead of both of them.
Barcelona’s Financial Troubles
FC Barcelona is one of the most storied soccer clubs of all time. They have won La Liga 27 times, have 31 Copa del Rey titles, and ended five Champions League runs with a trophy. Despite all its successes, Barcelona is far from the perfect club.
Barça has been in massive financial trouble lately. For one, they have spent a lot in the transfer market, but many of the signings proved unsuccessful, resulting in a loss when they sold the players to other clubs. COVID-19 was also very unfriendly to Barcelona. Camp Nou houses almost 100,000 spectators a game, which went empty during the pandemic. The club currently sits with over €1 billion in debt.
Barcelona’s Greatest Asset
One of Barcelona's costs is running La Masia, Barça’s youth academy. But La Masia’s operations are one of the only things the club has gotten right and can’t afford to cut back on. La Masia translates to 'The Farmhouse,' which is fitting given its propensity to raise young superstars.
Pep Guardiola put it this way:
“The player who has passed through La Masia has something different to the rest. It’s a plus that only comes from having competed in a Barcelona shirt from the time you were a child.”
This short list of players produced by La Masia is quite impressive, to say the least. Notably, during a game in 2012, Barcelona fielded an entire team of La Masia alumni when Barça was winning trophies left and right.
La Masia is known for its discipline and order. It has banned tattoos, dyed hair, earrings, and untucked shirts. Its focus is more than just on soccer. They only train for about 90 minutes daily, with the rest of the day focused on education in the classroom. Players are expected to attend classes, meet with tutors, and be set up for a life outside of soccer in case being a professional athlete doesn’t work out.
On the field, La Masia teaches its youth teams the Barça way of playing. They play with a high tempo and focus on possession and passing. Said Carles Folguera, a former La Masia director:
“We’re always looking for a type of player who’s not physical but a very good thinker, who’s ready to take decisions, who has talent, technique and agility. Physical strength is not important.”
I’ve written previously about attributes that make a world-class soccer player, and La Masia focuses its youth efforts around those attributes.
With its current financial struggles, La Masia may be the best-managed Barcelona asset. Said Aurelia Altimira, a former La Masia director:
“The biggest reason La Masia has shone in recent years is, mainly, due to the financial situation they are in.”
Said another who wished to remain anonymous:
“La Masia has shown throughout Barcelona’s history that it is the quickest and safest way to create ready-made players for the club—and it’s been forgotten sometimes. Given our financial state, and how good this generation is, we must take care of them.”
These two are saying that despite Barcelona’s financial troubles, building a first team through La Masia is essential to get the club’s finances back on track. Yamal’s current salary is only €1.67 million. Though it may seem like a lot of money for a 17-year-old, it is a steal of a deal for a player who has shown himself to be world-class over the last 18 months.
Other young La Masia graduates on affordable contracts include Alejandro Balde (€1.67 million), Marc Casadó (€520,000), and Pau Cubarsí (€4 million).
Things weren’t always this way. During the mid-2010s, there was a drought of La Masia graduates making it through to the first team. Barcelona’s B team started to be filled with more veteran players, which squeezed playing time for the youth players. This hurt their development, prompting many of them to leave Barcelona for other clubs where they could get more time on the field.
Since 2020, Barça has reversed course and is now focusing on bringing youth up through the ranks of La Masia to the first team. Outside forces such as financial troubles and Brexit (now English clubs can’t buy foreign players under 18) started to force Barcelona’s hand. Barça is now fully on board to resume building its team through La Masia.
Building through La Masia, which has proven to produce world-class players, is smart business. It's also proven to be able to win trophies this way. With a first team that highlights about half the starters from La Masia, Barcelona currently sits first in La Liga and second in the Champions League table (as of 11/26/24).
Building the First Team Through La Masia
Currently, twelve of the twenty-three first team players for Barça are La Masia-made. Barcelona’s website even boasts this fact by making it clear on the squad page of their website.
Meanwhile, Barça’s arch rivals, Real Madrid, only boast four players on their first team (five if you count a recent call-up) that came up through its youth academy.
If you make your way north and across the English Channel to the Premier League, Manchester United's homegrown talent played 28 percent of the team’s minutes last season, which led the league. However, this year, United only has six players on the team who were raised through its academy as it attempts to rebuild its roster.
If you compare Barcelona’s academy to Real Madrid’s academy, you get two very different philosophies. According to a study done in 2023, Real Madrid actually had the most active players (44) in Europe’s top five leagues from its academy. The difference is that Real Madrid’s academy, known as La Fabrica (The Factory), is more likely to sell players to other clubs before they reach the first team.
Real Madrid’s strategy is to use its academy to improve its financial performance. Since the 2010-11 season, it has sold 43 youth players, generating €200 million in revenue. The strategy has worked well since Real Madrid also tends to spend big money in the transfer market for the most sought-after names in the world.
With Barcelona’s financial troubles, it can’t afford to do the same. Instead, La Masia is the reason Barcelona is successful. If it didn’t have the young talent coming up through the ranks, one can only imagine where the club would be financially and in the league tables. Yamal is now the face of the current La Masia product, braces and all. I guess that’s one thing Yamal still has in common with the average 17-year-old.
Great read Austin! It has always struck me how "ready" La Masia players look when they get their chances on the big stage. You don't sense the nerves with a lot of them, and some even look mature (thinking of Cubarsi when he made his debut last season). I suppose for the players, simply knowing that a path exists from academy to first team must also be a big confidence booster.