Interview: Alex, and Barcelona Youth Academy

I N T E R V I E W

BY ANDY ROXBURGH, UEFA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR.

 

FC BARCELONA WERE CROWNED UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS, AND THE SPOTLIGHT WAS MAINLY ON THEIR FOREIGN STARS. WHAT MAY HAVE GONE UNNOTICED WAS THAT NINE OF THE BARÇA UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SQUAD WERE HOME-GROWN PLAYERS, INCLUDING CAPTAIN CARLES PUYOL, LIONEL MESSI, VÍCTOR VALDÉS AND ANDRÉS INIESTA. BARCELONA'S YOUTH ACADEMY HAS THEREFORE BEEN AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE CLUB AND ITS SUCCESS. THE DIRECTOR OF THE YOUTH PROGRAMME IS JOSÉ RAMÓN ALEXANCO, A STAR WITH FC BARCELONA FOR 13 YEARS. HIS RECORD INCLUDES CAPTAINING THE EUROPEAN CUP WINNING SIDE IN 1992, COLLECTING TWO EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS' CUPS, FOUR SPANISH CUPS, FOUR SPANISH LEAGUE TITLES, TWO SPANISH SUPERCOPAS, AND TWO UEFA SUPER CUPS. THE MAN WHO STARTED OUT AT ATHLETIC BILBAO AND REPRESENTED THE BASQUE CLUB IN THE UEFA CUP FINAL AGAINST JUVENTUS PLAYED FOR LEGENDARY COACHES SUCH AS KUBALA, HERRERA, LATTEK, MENOTTI AND CRUYFF, BEFORE BEGINNING HIS COACHING CAREER UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF BARÇA LEGEND JOHAN CRUYFF. TODAY JOSÉ RAMÓN ALEXANCO USES ALL HIS EXPERIENCE AS A PLAYER, COACH AND SCOUT TO RECRUIT AND DEVELOP PLAYERS FOR FC BARCELONA.

HE IS KNOWN TO HIS COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS SIMPLY AS...

ALEX

1 • How would you describe FC Barcelona's development philosophy and goals?

The first thing is to develop a footballer - we are not looking for results. We try to develop the footballer and the person, both socially and intellectually. We are living and working with kids from 12 to 19 years and we have to be 'parents', teachers and coaches, and we know we have a responsibility for leading them correctly in social terms. We organise meetings with the parents, and it is very important that we explain to them what we are doing with their children during the hours we spend with them at the club. We get excellent support from all the parents because they know exactly what their children are doing at any given time.


2• What is the organisation and structure of the Barça academy?


We have a coordinator who oversees the development of players between the ages of 10 and 15. They all get match play, but it is at the older level that you get more of a competitive element. We prepare them in the younger categories to be able to compete when they get older. It is at the 16 years and over stage that we concentrate on the technical, tactical and physical requirements which will equip them for the first team.
The technical leaders of the club prepare the guidelines for all the training sessions. In the current first team squad, nine of the players have come through the Barça academy programme. Young Lionel Messi, for example, arrived here from Argentina when he was 12 years old. His family came to Barcelona to live and, soon after, he started training with the club.
At FC Barcelona, we have 12 boys' teams and eight women's teams, although the latter are in a separate section. In the academy, each squad has two coaches and there are 23 or 24 players in each group. At least half of the coaches have a UEFA Pro licence. The club provides the budget, around six million euros per year, and is fully responsible for the academy facilities and training programme.


3 • How do you deal with the grassroots and the recruitment process?


Firstly, we concentrate on technical/tactical work. We play football. We have a football school where kids can play from the age of six upwards - this is a grassroots phase below the academy structure, with 16 to 20 coaches working there. They all travel here to the club's training centre. We also have about 30 clubs throughout Catalonia that cooperate with us on a regular basis. There are also nursery teams which develop the grassroots. Barça has 25 scouts throughout Spain - at least one in each province. Elsewhere in Europe, we also have people who watch games and send us reports.


Obviously scouting and recruitment are important parts of our job. At least twice a year, we bring all our scouts to Barcelona because it is important that they see the standard of work we do here. We hold workshops and explain the criteria and the quality we are looking for in young players.


4 • What qualities do you look for in a young player?


We search for players with the extremely high standard that is required by this club. We look for pace, technique, and someone who looks like a player. The speed of decision-making, the way he approaches the game, the vision to pick off a long pass - in other words, the mental qualities to go with the technical ability. These days, we do put an emphasis on speed because we think it is one of the fundamental qualities required, and when this speed is combined with top-quality technique, then we think we have the ingredients.


5 • Cesc Fabregas was one of your talented academy boys. Why did he leave?


When a boy reaches 15 years old and his family decides to move residence, then under Spanish law he can go, and only a small amount of compensation for training and education can be claimed. Cesc Fabregas took advantage of this ruling and when he was 16 years old he simply moved to London with his parents. This was classed as a relocation of the family, and there was nothing we could do to stop him signing for Arsenal FC. We have just lost another two of our players - one to Manchester United and another one to Arsenal. The only thing we can do is to project the image of the Barcelona club to the youngster and his parents. We sell the idea that this is one of the best clubs in the world and let each player know that he has a great opportunity to develop by working with us. We try to create a wonderful environment for the players' football education. We hope they will stay, but legally there is nothing we can do about it if they decide to move. Cesc Fabregas could very easily have been playing here in our first team, but all we can do is keep looking for talented players and creating the best conditions for their development.


6 • What is your games programme and your approach to training?


The boys play one match a week, Saturday or Sunday, and sometimes we have friendly games during the week against touring sides - many teams from places such as Africa and South America come here and want to play
against our boys. We also have many of our players selected for the various national squads (even as low as Under- 12s), and therefore we have some weeks when players from every level up to Under-21 are away on international duty. In our assessment, some kids play too many games in a season. With our teams we also take part in tournaments at Easter and pre-season, and we have to be careful not to accept too many invitations. So during the season a lot of our players can play as many as three games a week. We have a close contact with the schools to get the players released for training. With players aged 12 years and upwards, we bring some of them into our residential school in La Masía, although we prefer them to be at least 14 years old before they leave home. We have about 60 youngsters in our centre at any given time. Carles Puyol, the first team captain, is a graduate of La Masía.


Regarding our methods, we use the same playing system as the first team, so all our youth teams operate a 4/3/3 formation. The development teams have to reflect the personality of the first team. This also means we have to play attacking, attractive football. Our view is that if we do everything well, the winning comes as a consequence.
By the time a player reaches 16 years, we try to have him in his best position, but we like to keep an open mind and not be too restrictive when the players are developing. We like to expose them to different playing roles as part of their education.


We have two coaching coordinators, plus two coaches with each team, and all of us are on the field every day. We work intensely on the individual skill, but also on group play, including each line of the team. We train the Barça way which involves fast movement of the ball, player mobility, use of the width, and a lot of fast, effective finishing. We get them to watch the passing movements of the first team as they provide the role model for the youth teams.


7 • How do you re-train your staff coaches?


It is a continuous process for us which includes roundtable discussions. At these meetings we analyse everything and make suggestions about our training programmes. We are always trying to improve, always learning -
and, of course, searching for good players who can one day play in the blue and red of FC Barcelona.