Barcelona’s La Masia ranked as the second-best football academy in the world | OneFootball

A huge part of FC Barcelona’s recent success has once again been the talent coming through from the youth ranks at La Masia.

For a brief time after the golden period, there appeared to be a lull in terms of players transitioning from the youth academy to the senior team, but that has changed drastically over the past five to six years.

Players like Gavi, Alejandro Balde, Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, and Fermin Lopez have all firmly established themselves as top players in their respective positions.

Last season saw young talents like Marc Bernal and Marc Casado make their breakthrough under Hansi Flick.

This time around, it is Pedro Fernandez ‘Dro’, Jofre Torrents, and Toni Fernandez who are making their way into the senior setup.

Second-best academy in the world

This ongoing success has secured La Masia second place in the global ranking of football academies, according to a study by CIES (h/t SPORT).

The CIES study evaluates academies based on three key factors: the number of players trained, the level of clubs those players represented last season, and the total official minutes played during that period.

La Masia delivers. (Photo by Judit Cartiel/Getty Images)

A player is considered homegrown if he has spent at least three seasons with the club between the ages of 15 and 21.

According to these criteria, Benfica’s academy tops the list for the second consecutive year, having produced 93 active players who averaged 2,582 official minutes in the 2024–25 season.

Barcelona rank second, with 76 players competing in professional leagues. Those who came through La Masia averaged 2,773 minutes of official game time last season.

Completing the top three are River Plate, whose 97 academy graduates averaged 2,305 minutes in competitive fixtures.

Also in the top ten are Barcelona’s arch-rivals, Real Madrid, in ninth position. Their academy, La Fábrica, has trained 58 players currently active in professional leagues, who averaged 2,817 minutes of official football last season.