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10 years of FIFClub management (board) plays an important role because while the prevailing club philosophy & fundamentals of La Masia is to develop youth talent in a particular manner, more or less each board can tweak or even marginalize it’s value to the club. Bartomeu for example treated many like commodities
I agree that Bojan is a great case study but a missing aspect to this is how Pep wanted him to go back to the B team when his quality was not there and refused - its also that balance of not rushing them too quickly or applying the level of pressure that will make it difficult to adapt like most professionals all do. Moriba more recently was valued and was on the ascendency but rushed his progress wanting bigger wages & role and was sold - years later still trying to recapture his promising form as a youth player at Barca breaking into first team.
I follow Barca’s youth football passionately and there are countless cautionary tales, countless just missed talents or overhyped starlings but that’s also because the club churns out talent like no other academy. The FIFA ban on recruiting youth kids like Take left a gap but there’s always a local kid who rises to prominence and invariably their path is visible from day one. Kids like Ansu, Lamal, Gavi & Messi were clear as day upon their arrival at every youth level - it’s rare at Barca for a kid to dominate in this fashion and then tank at the senior level if injuries or professionalism don’t derail it
What separates youth talents, for me, is the indefinable, the creative spark that evokes joy on the pitch. When you see it in a player who not only is capable of it but makes the right decision the majority of the time (irrespective of the level of pressure) at 16 you have to accept that it is a phenomena - a rarity. There’s no question that barring injury Lamine Yamal is going to define an era - he has that quality to his game that only the game’s greatest possessed….and he’s just 16, imagine what that will look like in a few years much less a decade
His left foot too, I am mesmerized by how special it is. There’s no ‘next Messi’ but the first Lamine is going make history, I am certain of it
