The importance of youth development! Barça won the UCL in 2010-11, with 7 players from La Masia
Barcelona has demonstrated the importance of its youth system.
“We recall the time when Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League (UCL) in 2010-11 with seven La Masia players in the starting lineup,” soccer media outlet Score 90 wrote on its official social media account on Wednesday, highlighting the lineup.
Barcelona played a 4-3-3 formation and started David Villa, Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodriguez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernandez, Eric Abidal, Gerard Pique, Javier Mascherano, Dani Alves and Victor Valdes.
Barcelona and Manchester United are set to meet in the UCL final. It was a reunion two years after they met in the 2008-09 UCL final. In 2008-09, Barcelona won, and in 2010-11, the winner was Barcelona.
The game was dominated by Barcelona. Barcelona took the lead in the 27th minute when Pedro scored off a pass from Xavi. United equalized. In the 33rd minute, Wayne Rooney exchanged passes with Ryan Giggs and his shot rattled the Barcelona net. The first half ended 1-1.
The game broke open in the second half, however, when Messi’s shot from the edge of the penalty box went in the back of the net eight minutes into the second half. In the 23rd minute, David Villa scored the game-winning goal. The game ended with a 3-1 victory for Barcelona.
Seven of the starting lineup were from La Masia. La Masia is often referred to as Barcelona’s youth system. Messi, Pedro, Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi, Pique, and Valdes were from La Masia. Bojan Krkic, Carles Puyol and Thiago Alcantara, who sit on the bench, also came from La Masia.
Barcelona has a long tradition of instilling their soccer philosophy in young players. Players who learned the Barcelona mentality from a young age have gone on to excel when they made their first-team debut. This has helped Barcelona dominate the world stage since the 2000s. In recent years, players from La Masia, such as Ramin Yamal, Ronald Araujo, and Pablo Gabi, have played key roles for Barcelona.