It remains the jewel in the crown of a footballing model. The dream of every child destined to become a professional. But in recent years, Barcelona’s renowned La Masia has become something else too: a revenue stream in its own right, generating serious money in the market and putting it straight back into the Blaugrana coffers. As AS reports, sporting director Deco, the former Barça great now at the centre of the club’s sporting hierarchy, has started selling academy prospects for significant sums. First came Ansu Fati, who moved to Monaco for €11 million last summer — a deal that has worked well for both sides, given the player’s form in Ligue 1. Then came midfielder Tommy Marqués, who joined Sporting Braga for the same fee. And now the list is growing by the day. Héctor Fort, a defender with a bright future ahead of him, was sold to Real Sociedad for €8 million. Iñaki Peña and Álvaro Cortés, goalkeeper and centre-back respectively, moved to Panathinaikos and Antwerp for €3 million each. Left-back Jofre Torrents signed for Ajax. And the latest news is that Toni Fernández, the promising attacking midfielder born in 2008, has also joined Venezia in Serie A for €4 million plus a percentage of any future sale. That brings the total to around €46 million in the last twelve months alone.
And that’s not all. Barça and La Masia are also working on a major sale: Marc Casadó, the 2003-born midfielder and one of the academy’s standout products, whose market value is thought to be somewhere around €30–40 million. A substantial figure for a player of his age with just 41 first-team appearances. But when that first team is Hansi Flick’s Barcelona, the equation looks rather different. La Masia remains a guarantee.
Because yes, the Blaugrana academy has started selling too. But it has hardly stopped being what it has always been: the natural route into the first team for its best young talents, with those players going on to become pillars of Barcelona far more often than is the case along the equivalent Fábrica–Real Madrid pathway. Gavi, Pedri, Cubarsí, Lamine Yamal — just to name a few. All of them have already made their mark on Spain too, at an almost absurdly young age. At the Bernabéu, there is simply nothing comparable. Players are sold earlier, well and quickly, with the academy’s work monetised to the fullest: in this transfer window alone, Florentino Pérez’s club has brought in almost €190 million from the sale of players who came through its youth system. And that is where La Masia is beginning to mirror its rivals, expanding its core business. Without losing what makes it La Masia. Learning to cash in on its talent elsewhere, too.