the farmhouse It is the heart of the Barcelona youth academy, which is located next to the Camp Nou Stadium. It was established in 1979 and is now used to develop young players who have had to leave their families to train in Barcelona in both a sporting and an intellectual sense.
They apparently have a total of about 260 junior players learning their trade here. Ninety percent of them are Spanish and more than 50 percent Catalan. In fact the current the Barca The team has 12 first-team players who have come from the academy.
There are several young people who had lived in the farmhouse have gone on to play in the first team, such as Josep “Pep” Guardiola (academy years 1984-90), Iván De la Peña (1991-94), Carles Puyol (1994-98), Andrés Iniesta (1996-2001), Víctor Valdes (1996-2000) and Lionel Messi (2000-04).
Pep was promoted as the farmhouse larger product. A charismatic player who made 43 caps for Spain and won a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He led the club to six La Liga titles, a Champions Cup in 1992 and two Spanish Cups.
Puyol, of Catalan origin, is the current patron of the club and is heading towards his 250th game with the club.
However, not all graduates of the farmhouse they settled in Barcelona and some have moved on to other clubs to further their careers.
These include de la Peña, Luis García, José Manuel Reina, Mikel Arteta, Gerard Piqué, Cesc Fábregas and Albert Luque.
Fabregas, also a native of Catalonia, was persuaded by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for a brighter, better-paid future at Arsenal, and has shown that since joining the Gunners as a 16-year-old in September 2003.
Piqué has also been signed by Sir Alex Ferguson to strengthen his team. He is a defender who is not only good because of his defensive skills, but also gets ahead and scores.