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On November 25, 2012, FC Barcelona plays away at Levante. After barely a quarter of an hour Dani Alves has to come off, and Martín Montoya replaces him. From that moment on, all eleven players on the field are products of the club’s own youth academy – for the first time in the club’s history. Barcelona wins 4–0. The evening has a backstory going back 33 years. It tells of the Team Principle of Investment: what you invest in a team pays off – with a delay, and with interest.
A Farmhouse Next to the Stadium
Situation
La Masia is a Catalan farmhouse dating from 1702 and stands next to the Camp Nou stadium. On October 20, 1979, it becomes a residence for youth players who are not from the city. The idea is credited to Jaume Amat; Oriol Tort takes charge. The house is small: about 600 square meters, with room for 60 young talents, only twelve of whom sleep there. The academy’s philosophy of play goes back to Laureano Ruiz, Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff: possession, winning the ball back quickly, small-sided games – and developing players rather than buying them.
Connection to the team principle
The investment starts inconspicuously. A house, a few beds, a shared idea of how to play for every age group. Anyone investing in 1979 knew that the boys moving in would not play for the first team for at least ten years. Investing like that takes a conviction that lasts longer than a season or a term in office.
Paying In Year After Year
Situation
According to the source, more than 1,000 boys between six and eight try out every year. About 200 are selected. In 2013 running the academy cost around €15 million a year; it is considered one of the most expensive in Europe. In September 2011 the youth teams move into a new building in Sant Joan Despí named after Oriol Tort: 6,000 square meters, at a total cost of around €11 million.
Connection to the team principle
The investment is not a one-time decision. It is made anew every year – including the years in which no talent makes the leap. Most of the boys who try out never turn professional at Barcelona. The return does not depend on any one player. It comes from the system.
The Harvest
Situation
In the 2009 Champions League final, seven homegrown players are in Barcelona’s starting eleven, and in 2011 seven again. In the 2010 Ballon d’Or vote, all three top finishers come from La Masia: Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi. In the 2010 World Cup final Barcelona supplies seven players to the Spanish squad; several of the starters are academy graduates. Then comes the evening at Levante.
Connection to the team principle
This is where the interest shows. The return does not come as a single star but as a whole generation of players who have known one another since childhood and learned the same idea of how to play. A research finding from a completely different field fits this picture. In 2009 Robert S. Huckman, Bradley R. Staats and David M. Upton studied software projects at an Indian IT services firm. The more often team members had already worked together, the better the team performed. The study shows a correlation in one particular company, not proof that the same holds in soccer. But it supports the idea that shared time is a form of capital that can be built up.
Living Off Capital
Situation
In the years that follow, the club goes back to spending big on signings: Neymar, Luis Suárez, Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembélé, Antoine Griezmann. Academy talents leave. World governing body FIFA hits the club with a transfer ban for signing underage players from abroad. In 2018 the reserve team is relegated to the third tier. Shortly before the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020, according to a report in FourFourTwo magazine, only four homegrown players remain in the squad. In the 2020s the club turns to the academy again, partly out of financial need – with players such as Gavi, Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí.
Connection to the team principle
The principle also works in reverse. If you suspend the investment, you don’t notice right away. For a while you live off what earlier years have saved up. The gap only shows with a delay – and then it cannot be closed quickly. Whether the club could have decided differently in those years is another question. The sequence itself is clear.
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Ask yourself which investment in your team will pay off in five years at the earliest. If you can’t think of one, you are living off your reserves.
- Give your team a shared way of working that applies to newcomers and veterans alike. That is what turns individual talents into a generation.
- Keep teams together wherever you can. Familiarity grows with every shared task, and part of it is lost with every reshuffle.
- Keep paying in during good times. Success in particular tempts you to neglect development and buy talent instead.
- Don’t calculate per head. Most individual investments yield little; the system yields a lot.
Summary
In 1979 FC Barcelona turned a farmhouse into a residence and, over decades, invested in player development and a shared idea of how to play. The return came late: titles, three Ballon d’Or finalists in one year and, in 2012, an eleven made up entirely of academy graduates. When the club then relied more heavily on signings, the accumulated capital held for a few more years – then the gap became visible. La Masia shows both sides of the Team Principle of Investment: the interest is high, but only for those who keep paying in.