Inside Barcelona's women's wonderkid factory: How La Masia became the go-to academy for the world's best teenage talents

Jonatan Giraldez, head coach of Barcelona’s women’s team between 2021 and 2024 and assistant to Lluis Cortes for the two seasons prior, was at the club as this plan started to really come together. Externally, this became apparent in the summer of 2023 in particular, as a whole host of talents from abroad, including Dragoni, Szymczak, Onyeka Gamero from the U.S. and Martine Fenger from Norway, signed for the club.

“For me, it is one of the keys in the process when you are working with young players, that you are not just analysing what is happening in Spain. [If so], you are missing a lot of players,” Giraldez, now head coach of the Washington Spirit, tells GOAL. “You have the opportunity to bring players from other countries, and also having La Masia there, I think it's an important point to develop the performance of the player.

“When I was working there, we believed a lot in the academy. All the players who were coming [from] outside [were] not just to play in the first team. It’s to develop their performance in Barca's style. Obviously, I think it's a good idea and Barca will keep doing that because you need to detect the young talent, especially from foreign countries, to make sure that they can develop with you.

“It's normal in the men's teams,” he adds. “But women's soccer is getting larger. For me, it is completely normal. You need to identify the talent. When you have professional staff in your club, 'Okay, let's do it bigger to make sure that we are analysing and detecting the young talent around the world'. I think it's something that makes sense, especially in the last years, because right now, professional teams are investing in staff, but we need to keep investing also in the scouts.”

That scouting has to be particularly good at Barcelona, given how specific the club’s style is. Be they a young prospect or an established senior star, not every player can adapt to the Barca way and thrive. It’s up to the scouting team to identify talents with the traits to succeed in Catalunya.

When it comes to the youth set-up, there is also the need to accurately assess the potential of players. Barcelona’s first team is of the highest level, winning the last two Women’s Champions League titles. Yet, the club is committed to having a clear plan into the senior side for all its prospects, rather than just stockpiling the best young players around.

That’s a big reason why many are lured to Barcelona’s youth set-up. That might sound strange, because it is a hugely successful club that most would be keen to join, right? But there are a lot of top sides in Europe, and beyond, with a growing focus on young talent, while many players will be keen to know there is a plan for them to get into the first team, rather than just being on a hamster wheel of loans before eventually having to move on to pastures new after failing to break through.

Jens Wenzl represents some of Barca’s top senior stars, such as Caroline Graham Hansen and Ingrid Engen, and also has players in the club’s academy. One of those is Fenger, who was playing senior football in Norway before choosing to move to Barca and progress through its youth set-up. The decision to make that move was underpinned by the “football education” one receives at La Masia, Wenzl explains to GOAL.

Another huge element in the Barcelona package is the residence it can offer, which is unmatched in the women’s game. There are a lot of FIFA requirements that clubs must meet when signing players under the age of 18, and Barca are able to tick those boxes thanks to an academy which has housed female players since 2021, having been a place for them to train, rather than live, prior to that. Some clubs are trying to do similar, but don’t have as great a facility as this just yet, giving Barca a notable advantage right now.

There is a community within this youth set-up, too, one that certainly helps those settling into a new environment away from their families and, in some cases, their home countries. It means no one is alone, that they are surrounded by others in similar situations and this can all make it easier to adjust to the off-field challenges, which can certainly have an on-pitch impact.

As for the football, Barcelona’s strong structure pays dividends in its development of youth. Above the various underage teams, there is a C team and a B team, both of which won their league titles in the 2023-24 season. The existence of these sides gives young players a chance to compete in the senior game while still learning the Barca way.

The B team in particular is a great litmus test for prospects. It plays in the second-tier in Spain, a strong level, and has offered the likes of Lopez and Schertenleib the stepping stone they’ve needed to then make the jump into the first team. It’s no wonder foreign clubs have started to scout the B team, too.

“The communication between first team and second team is very good, very open,” Giraldez, who handed Lopez her Barca debut, explains. “We are in communication every week to move players, to ask players sometimes just to train, other times to be in the squad, on the roster. I think it's important when they have the environment to compete in a professional environment. I think it's very helpful for them because they are working in a club which pays a lot of attention to the young talents.”

Perhaps the thing that stands out the most about Barcelona’s development of young players, though, is the attention to detail. When the club signs a player for the academy, it does so because it believes that player can play for the first team. It has scouted the player extensively, knows what their strengths and weaknesses are, and has a specific plan to progress that player all the way through the ranks. Wenzl is quick to praise “the way they train the younger players, the perspective to grow into the team and the honesty they have inside the club to just take on players who they really believe in”.

For some extremely special players, like Lopez or Schertenleib, this jump into the first team does not take long. For some, like Dragoni or Pina, a loan move is seen as the best next step in that development. For others, it’s just about patience, about going up each rung of the Barca ladder. But, overall, the vision from the club for each player is clear, the communication is honest and the belief is huge. It’s just then the little details that vary from case to case.

“Most times, I think the most important thing when you bring one player from another country or another community is, ‘Let's see [their] first season’, in terms of adaptation,” Giraldez explains. “Because sometimes the player misses their family. It's not so easy. It's not just to arrive at the new club and compete. Some players need more time. Other players, they don't need so much time to adapt to the new environment, but we always like to speak about that. Try to believe in the process and let's see the second and third season. How can we help the player to improve the level?

“Sometimes we decide to [keep them for] one more year in the B team. Other times we decide, 'Okay, let's [have them] train with the first team and just play games with the B team'. Other times we decide, 'Okay, it's better for this player to leave for another club to have more minutes and good training, good games in a higher level to make sure and decide if this player is capable to come with us', as we did in the past with other players. I think it depends on each situation to decide what is the best for them.”

None of this means anything if the first-team staff don’t trust in youth. Fortunately, Barca’s do. That they regularly promote players from the B team rather than just entering the transfer market is evidence of this, with the club often making just a few signings here and there each season. Among Europe’s elite sides, Barca have comfortably been the quietest in the transfer windows over the last five years.

That's another reason why it’s no surprise that so many talented prospects are keen to take up the challenge presented to them in Catalunya, even if it might take more time to eventually get a first-team breakthrough that they could achieve elsewhere. And as the old saying goes, patience is a virtue. When those players do get through and are rubbing shoulders with the likes of Putellas and Bonmati, or international stars such as Graham Hansen and Ewa Pajor, they are learning so much.

Veronica Maglia, Schertenleib’s coach with Switzerland Under-17s, remembers when the talented young midfielder told her about the opportunity to move to Barcelona. “Her eyes lit up,” Maglia recalls to GOAL. Schertenleib broke into the senior game when she was only 15 years old, playing first for FC Zurich before joining Grasshoppers a year later. Her form there was inspired, and led to a first senior cap for Switzerland.

When she moved to Barca a few months later, unlike many, she did not require a trial, but she would still start in the B team. She wasn’t there for long, though. Her incredible talent, which landed her a spot at No.4 on this year’s women’s NXGN list, would earn her a senior Barcelona debut by November, aged 17. She’s stayed in the squad ever since. “Sydney is now surrounded by the best every day,” Maglia notes. “She is infected with winning.”

Of course, these players don’t become special talents just because they pull on the Barcelona colours. The likes of Lopez, Schertenleib, Szymczak, Dragoni and Fenger had already made senior debuts before calls came from the Catalan club. Indeed, while touching upon the impact of Barcelona on Schertenleib, Maglia is also keen to emphasise the work of the player and her family. “I am convinced that she got there because she represents great values that were passed on to her at home,” she says.

But Barcelona scouts out these talents who have the potential, both in terms of their footballing ability and their personalities, to play for the first team, brings them into a very sophisticated youth set-up and helps them to take the next steps in their development with detailed individual plans, great support and, as Wenzl notes, what is probably the “best education” in the sport. No other club is doing that to as impressive a degree.

It's hard for any senior player to turn down a move to Barcelona. They've won three of the last four Women's Champions League titles, all of the last five Liga F crowns and, through double triumphs for Putellas and Bonmati, each of the last four Ballons d’Or. Even on the men’s side, which has not been as successful in recent years, the draw of the badge is always evident.

But it’s also now incredibly difficult for any young player, even one playing senior football elsewhere, to say no to Barcelona. As well as a place for the very best players on the planet, it’s becoming a wonderkid factory – be they inhabitants at the club for many years, or taken to the next level by it at a later date.