years, the Under-10s, Under-12s and
Under-14s have started to participate in
boy’s leagues – the only female teams in
Spain competing against boys. Even if this
means the girl’s teams are not winning
as many games as they may have done
in a single-sex environment, the club
believe the increased competitiveness
will create a higher level of technically-
skilled players further down the line.
Allowing female residents to stay
on the facility will, for the first time,
allow the most talented girls from
outside the city become part of the
club from a younger age. This creates
an opportunity for Barcelona to recruit
the best players from around the world
and maybe one day bring through the
nextLionel Messi, who was first plucked
fromArgentinatoliveinBarcelona
at the age of13. Among the male
students currently resident atLa Masia,
it is estimated that half are Catalan,
40 per cent from the rest of Spain
and ten per cent from abroad.
Of the nine female residents, only
one, Mallorcan Lucia Corrales, is from
outside Catalonia, and Zubizarreta
insists the priority will always be
on developing young players from
the region: “When we started in 2015,
the project was not to invest a lot of
money and make the best signings in
the world. We wanted to develop our
own players and have a project that
wefeelproudofasaclub,toinvest
in players in the academy.”
He maintains that no other club in
the world demands as much from its
academy players. “I talk about football
in a way that is completely different to
what they have heard in the past. We
are really proud of this. We need to try
to keep this difference in the next few
years.Everyone is investing in women’s
football. Now we are there, but if we stop
right now, the clubs that are behind us
maybe will reach our level.
“Of course, the philosophy of
the club was to become champions
of Europe – but in our way. I don’t thinkit is better or worse than any other way,
but it is our way and that is something
that is really important.”
What Barcelona have done better
than other women’s football teams is
to convince their fans of their one-club
philosophy. While many other leading
teams around Europe have played
showpiece matches at their main club
stadium, none have so far managed
to get them through the turnstiles as
effectively as Barcelona.
While people may argue that the
majority of the91,553 attendance at the
Nou Campwere club members offered
the opportunity to claim up to four free
tickets, getting them to turn up on
a weekday for a game kicking off
before the end of the Spanish working
day was no mean achievement.
In the days leading up to the game,
the club went on a public relations
offensive, with club presidentJoan
Laporta speaking on the radio urging all
who had a ticket to attend or pass them
on to someone who could. Full-page
newspaper advertisements were run
talking up the possibility of breaking the
official FIFA world-record attendance
figure of 90,185, which was set at the
Pasadena Rose Bowl during the
1999 Women’s World Cup final.eyewitness
Clincher...Putellas
celebrates after
netting Barca’s
fourth goalPhoto credit: UEFA