Players, technicians and educators who have ever passed through La Masia, the precious training center that Barcelona turned into a brand, tend to agree on the same problem: the difficult emotional management of expectation, so often built by relatives who are not prepared for a change of life [there is the example of Bori Fati, father of Ansu], agents who seek to get the most out of children turned into market pieces, and media eager to sell new stories.

On March 23, Bojan Krkic, 32, said goodbye to football. He was top scorer in the history of Barcelona's youth categories (423 goals); with Frank Rijkaard in charge he surpassed Leo Messi in precocity scoring with Barça in La Liga with 17 years and 51 days (a record that Ansu would later break); and would have played the Euro 2008 with which Spain began its golden cycle after being besieged by anxiety. Bojan played in eight teams and six more countries after he left the Camp Nou. "The hardest part of my career was when I definitively cut my link with Barca and went to Stoke City. There was a sign that said, 'Thank you for everything.' It was hard." Bojan, in his four years as a Barça player (2007-2011) scored the same goals (41) as in the following 11 years (2011-2022) in the ranks of Roma, Milan, Ajax, the aforementioned Stoke City, Mainz, Alavés, Montreal and Vissel Kobe.

When this Sunday the Barcelona of Gavi, Balde and still Ansu arrives at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez to face Getafe will have the opportunity to take a look at that mirror that does not always return the expected image. Munir El Haddadi (El Escorial, 1995) and Carles Aleñá (Mataró, 1998) were once hung up on the sambenito of being hopes of La Masia. Now they are trying to reaffirm themselves in the south of Madrid with very different expectations and objectives.

Munir, whose fame skyrocketed after scoring a goal from midfield in the 2014 Youth League final, was made by Luis Enrique for Barça in August of that same year. Of that first batch of homegrown players to whom the Asturian wound also took part the striker Sandro Ramírez (now in Las Palmas de Segunda) and the midfielder Sergi Samper (in Japan and next to Iniesta in the same Vissel Kobe where Bojan said goodbye to football).

Debut with Spain

In the memory is that hasty debut of Munir with the absolute Spanish selection of Vicente del Bosque to fear the Federation that would end up playing with Morocco (those 13 minutes against Macedonia were the only ones, so the striker claimed to be international, this time yes, with the Moroccan team); comparisons to Real Madrid legend Raúl González; his 25 goals in 113 games with Sevilla (12 goals in 56 games with Barça); or his determined attempt at redemption at Getafe. From the hand of Quique Sánchez Flores, the striker has settled in the ownership after having chained substitutes throughout the first round of the championship.

When Munir made his debut in Barcelona's first team in La Liga, even scoring a goal against Elche, Carles Rexach wrote on the back cover of Mundo Deportivo: "I'm sure he'll make a career. My advice is that, behind closed doors, say that you do not believe it, but that in your inner self you do believe it. It's not arrogance, it's the only way to succeed." And there, perhaps, is the key to everything.

Aleñá, a model boy since he arrived at La Masia at the age of seven, got used to being the leader in the midfield of all his teams. The press was recreated both in his curly hair to the Maradona and in those countercultural characteristics for the interiors of La Masia that seemed to marry those of Luis Enrique, who also made him debut. Aleñá was too strong. Too vertical. But also too patient. Until the directors (they gave his number 21 to Frenkie de Jong) and Ernesto Valverde made him understand that he would not be the one to lead the Barça midfield. Aleñá celebrates his third season at Getafe. He hasn't started seven games.

Barcelona has divided into 16 First Division teams (not so in Real Madrid, Atlético and Athletic) to 36 players who have passed through La Masia at some point in their formation. Among all of them, only the loaned Abde (Osasuna) and Nico González (Valencia) have hopes of one day triumphing at the Camp Nou. And while the offices feed the need to sell Ansu Fati, still 20 years old, they are already dreaming of the future of another striker, Yamine Lamal, 15. Both, in the hands of agent Jorge Mendes. And keep the wheel turning.

  • FC Barcelona

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