It just isn’t fair. La Masia, soccer’s foremost player production line, looks loaded with the next generation of talent that will ensure Barcelona’s dominance for years to come. Barcelona’s academy is renowned for its philosophy of play, dictating an emphasis on technical ability and one-touch play.
Here, with this video of the top 5 goals from La Masia in April, we have genuine evidence of the continued success of this philosophy. You can only commiserate with the opponents of Barcelona’s exuberant brilliance. Take heart, you may have just been scored on by the next Xavi, Iniesta or Messi. It’s something to tell the grandkids about.
FC Barcelona La Masia Academy: Top 5 Goals April 2016
10-year-olds setting each other up with exquisite dummies. 12-year-olds scoring delicately chipped goals in the same manner as Messi. When Pep Guardiola claimed that “the player who has passed through La Masia has something different to the rest”, he wasn’t joking around.
It’s all a little surreal and completely damning of America’s belief in winning the World Cup in the next 50 years. Here are players that spend all day being honed by the world’s best coaches, that spend all night watching and idolizing the accessible examples of Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique and Messi.
In the states our coaches are full of praise for whichever player can hoof the ball the furthest and instantly enraptured by feats of height and physical strength. Players in the US can go through high school with only the faintest idea of tactics instilled in their heads.
At La Masia, they’re practicing the Dutch philosophy of total football, moving and inter-changing positions fluidly while perfecting traditional Spanish tiki-taka.
Alas, my enjoyment of this video has been ruined. I’ve been made to feel inadequate by a 12-year-old.
