By the numbers – How Barcelona’s La Masia leaves Real Madrid’s La Fabrica behind | OneFootball

There is almost no debate when it comes to Barcelona and Real Madrid in terms of the success of the academies, for the Catalans’ La Masia is quite clearly above the Merengues’ La Fabrica.

The one argument Los Blancos have in their favour on that front is the fact that they generate more revenue from their academy than Barcelona, but that is purely because the Catalans do not sell their promising prospects and choose to bet on them.

La Masia has been the backbone of Barcelona’s recent rebuild with players like Lamine Yamal, Gavi, Alejandro Balde, Pau Cubarsi and Fermin Lopez all almost normal in the team’s plans.

SPORT, however, have dived into the depth of the La Masia and La Fabrica debate in terms of the success of players in the remaining first-division teams.

One-sided statistics

As relayed by the outlet, 53 Barcelona academy products made appearances in the Spanish League in the recently concluded edition while only 30 former Real Madrid academy trainees had that honour.

Moreover, 20 La Masia trainees started at least once in La Liga while that number stands at a paltry 14 for Los Blancos. In terms of goals scored ex-Barcelona academy talents lead with 79 goals while their arch-rivals’ prospects only scored 33.

When one talks of impact in their parent club, there are currently six Barcelona stars who are regular starters under Hansi Flick but only two who can claim to have such a secure role at their mother club Real Madrid.

Further, the La Masia graduates in Barcelona have found the back of the net 29 times while La Fabrica graduates have only scored six times.

The players in the limelight

La Masia delivers. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

Inaki Pena, Cubarsi, Balde, Casado, Bernal, Gavi, Fermin, Yamal, Hector Fort, Eric Garcia, Dani Olmo, Ansu Fati, Sergi Dominguez, and Dani Rodriguez are the academy players to have played a league game for Barcelona this season.

Away from the club, Real Betis boast of a very high strength of Barcelona academy stars with Marc Bartra, Sergi Altimira, Marc Roca and Rodri Sanchez having played in La Liga.

Nahuel Molina at Atletico Madrid, Oscar Mingueza and Ilaix Moriba at Celta Vigo, Ilias Akhomach and Arnau Sola at Villarreal, Peque Fernandez at Sevilla, Dani Cardenas and Ivan Balliu at Rayo Vallecano and Carles Perez at Getafe are other notable names

Carles Alena at Alaves, Robert Navarro and Mateu Morey in Mallorca, Sergio Gomez and Take Kubo at Real Sociedad, Diego Lopez, Rafa Mir and Sergi Canos at Valencia and Arnau Martinez, Oriol Romeu, Abel Ruiz, Iker Almena at Girona add to the list.

Leganes’ Adri Altimira, Munir El Hadaddi and Enric Franquesa, Las Palmas’ Mika Marmol, Sandro Ramirez and Real Valladolid’s Raul Moro, Mamadou Sylla, Adam Aznou, Xavi Moreno and Arnau Rafus also spent time at La Masia.

Notably, moreover, even Espanyol have a fair share of Barcelona Academy products despite all the noise they are making over Joan Garcia’s move. Javi Puado, Antonio Roca, Brian Olivan and Sergi Gomez, after all, are former Barcelona players.