“What pays to teach kids is fun, ball touch, creativity, inventions.
Creativity does not clash with discipline.” Johann Cruijff
That’s one of the concepts on which is based one of the most famous and prolific youth schools in the history of football “La Masia”.
Born in 1979 Barcelona’s youth sector is recognized worldwide as a unique model and which has been creating and producing talent for more than 30 years.
Johan Cruijff, first as a player and then as a coach, was the one who imported into Catalonia the winning philosophy of play that is still reproduced today of the “Total Football”. Created by coach Rinus Michels who took Ajax and Holland to the top of the world football between 60s and 70s, in 1999 he was even awarded by the FIFA as the best coach of the Century.
In 1988 Cruijff became Barcelona’s coach, after years of darkness he brought the team back to success. Between 1990 and 1994 he won 11 trophies, creating the first Dream Team in the history of Blaugrana.
In addition to the style of play, his first goal was to focus on the youth sector where he could create the champions of the future.
With a basic principle to transmit, the ball possession skills to dominate the game and opponents, a philosophy that runs through the entire club, from the youngsters to the first team. A mentality that allows young players to adapt very quickly to the transition to the first team.
“The boys must feel free to play. They learn mostly from their mistakes, so let’s give them the opportunity to make them.” Johann Cruijff
The most significant examples of the success of this project are two. In 2011, three players from La Masia finished among the top places in the Ballon d’Or ranking: Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. Then, in November 2012, for the first time in history, 11 out of 11 players from the Cantera were on the pitch in the Barcelona-Levante match (4-0).
The latest expression of this project is Pablo Martín Páez Gavira, known as Gavi. The midfielder born on 5 August 2004 is the perfect reincarnation of all the concepts expressed by Cruijff and he represents the continuation of the dynasty after Xavi and Iniesta thanks to his technique, vision and ability to play with the ball.
Bought at 11 years old from the youth team of Real Betis, since his arrival in the Masia‘s center, Gavi has been noticed for his uncommon qualities for a player of his age.
In fact, since the beginning, he has always played under age showing a lot of personality and desire to win, and this was totally confirmed by all his coaches.
This attitude is one of the characteristics that allowed him to become the youngest debutant in the history of the Spanish National team in the semi-final of Nations League against Italy, at 17 years and 62 days.
Joining the first team the current season, he made his debut against Getafe and scored his first goal against Elche on 18th December 2021, also adding an assist in the same match. He became the third youngest scorer in Barcelona’s history behind Bojan Krkic and Ansu Fati, another Masia product that in recent years has shown big things, which gives good hopes for the future to the Blaugrana fans.
After Ronald Koeman’s dismissal on 6th November 2011, Xavi officially became Barcelona’s coach and immediately put the Cantera players at the center of his project, as demonstrated in the match against Real Madrid in which 11 of them were called-up for the game.
In the current season 2021-2022, Gavi has already made 24 appearances in La Liga, 6 in Champions League and 5 with the national team. Since his debut, he has already scored 2 goals and made 4 assists and has become one of the key players in the midfield with an average of 68 minutes played per game in La Liga: this is really impressive for a 17-year-old!
In today’s football world there seems to be less and less space for young players, as the statistics show. In a report by the CIES Football Observatory, the data shows that in 2021 the lowest percentage of minutes allowed for under21 players in the major European leagues is in Italy with 3.9%, immediately followed by La Liga with 4.2%
Therefore, the Spanish midfielder is an interesting outsider of these statistics, also thanks to his versatility and the possibility of moving between different roles. From his debut till now he has played as midfielder, attacking midfielder, right and left wing, allowing him to find the right play in every part on the pitch.
The main skill of the boy from Los Palacios y Villafranca is undoubtedly his vision and ability to pass the ball: he has an impressive 90% accuracy making at least 30 completed passes per game. Not only in the simplest areas of the pitch, but often playing close to the penalty area.
However, he is still not very successful in the conclusion on goal: despite the two strikes made, on average he shoots only 1 times per game, with only 25% on target; still too little.
He has an average WSF Performance Index of 6.2 per game and data show how among his main characteristics there is his great aggressiveness. Despite his height of 1.73 m, the Spanish midfielder has a solid physique that allows him to be able to win 51% of the duels on the pitch, with an average of 11 duels per game. Again, this is also thanks to his ferocity and desire to reconquer the ball, one of the fundamental principles of Cruijff’s football.
However, on the negative side, there is definitely a problem with yellow and red cards, still dictated by inexperience: indeed, he missed a game due to disqualification, has collected 5 yellow cards and 1 red card, committing around 2 fouls per game.
The last interesting peculiarity of the young Barça’s player is that he plays with untied shoes, demonstrating a huge confidence in his touch of the ball as only the greatest players do, like Maradona in his training sessions.
A little bit for a bizarre superstition and a little bit for an inability to lace them up, he plays his games like that, showing extreme self-esteem and awareness of his abilities.
All these features make Gavi one of the most interesting young talents in the world of football, as Spain’s national team coach Luis Enrique has said: “he is the future”.
Will he be the future of Barcelona? Will he be the successor of Don Andres Iniesta?
by Giorgio Patania, Elisa Zanchetta