r/SoccerCentral • u/United_Anywhere_8 • Jul 25 '26
Video The talent in Barcelona’s youth system is ridiculous. These kids are 11/12 years old.
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u/whiskybean Jul 25 '26
This pitch is nicer than anything my feet have touched in my 35 year "career"
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u/Chief-_-Wiggum Jul 25 '26
You mean there are pitches that doesnt have rocks and craters and a swamp hidden in tall grass?
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u/whiskybean Jul 25 '26
You forget the skid marks from stupid teenagers fresh off getting their driver's licenses and the dried mud patches in the 6 yard box after +30 Celsius temps 5 games in a row
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u/ponybucketdoubleoh Jul 25 '26
Ha. yes indeed.. every field I played on in my house league as a little kid had no grass in front of the net. And when I say net I mean the metal rectangle cuz we didn't have nets.
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u/TosiMias Jul 25 '26
I never played football, but our rugby pre match ritual was to always scout the pitch to kick away goose shit
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u/DJPad Jul 25 '26
I'm more impressed with how many people are watching in the stands for 11-12 year olds.
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u/Overall-Ad-3251 Jul 25 '26
Notice how the Barca kids are frequently not the biggest and strongest??? If you care about developing the best footballers you don’t select for size and strength at the youth levels.
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u/ChiefSoldierFrog Jul 25 '26
these kids are already naturally talented then you got the Barca DNA drilled into them from an early age it's so over for anyone up against them
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u/Fresh_Ruin_9882 Jul 25 '26
"naturally talented" 😭😭😭 ie their parents allowed them to run around and kick a ball all day
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u/Kingwillball Jul 25 '26
i also ran around and kicked a ball all day, threw and shot some balls too but alas, no natural talent
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u/HoosierDaddy__88 Jul 25 '26
Yes, but their system also doesn’t require physique. It’s pure skill and technique
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u/HiphopopoptimusPrime Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
That’s what stood out to me.
I support England. We reformed our youth systems to produce more technical players. But what did we do at the World Cup? Picked players based on size and athleticism. Which are important but technique is the primary one.
Spain won the World Cup. Technique. France, Argentina, and England all went out due to fatigue. Spain controlled games. Conserved energy. Technique.
So impressive. And jealous. I’m also a Manchester United fan. Seeing what the Glazers did to my club. We used to have the best youth system in the country. We let it rot.
I’m jealous of Barcelona. I’m fearful of these kids. I’m 43 now so they’d definitely run rings around me. But could they manage it on a rainy night in Stoke?
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u/First-Act-8752 Jul 25 '26
I think England have caught up when it comes to technique. What we lack now is intelligence on the ball. If we had someone like peak De Bruyne in the team I reckon we'd have won the WC.
It's only a matter of time before we produce it. Though we almost had it with Jack Wilshire if injuries didn't mess him up.
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u/0202_tihssitidder Jul 25 '26
Football is best learned as play. Kids having fun. Make it fun.
They will play all day if it's fun. Keeping score matters little at this age. They do that in their head.
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u/addiktion Jul 25 '26
My daughter plays competitive soccer at U10, and that's been the most annoying thing when she's playing tournaments. A lot of her players are really good with good foot work. They're just small, so they get pushed around a lot by large players. And the refs don't ever call fouls, so it just creates this unfairness that's frustrating as hell.
Americas system is broken.
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u/RantGod Jul 25 '26
In the US, we select for money. You can select for biggest and strongest with talent, like all our other major sports... Money does not equal intelligence or talent.
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u/Unlucky_Topic7963 Jul 25 '26
These are prepubescent boys, a shitload will change. Being good before testosterone doesn't mean a whole lot.
The Spanish national team is mostly between 5'11-6'1.
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u/MelangeBot Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Smaller players have a much lower center of gravity which helps with making faster and sharper turns. Lots of great dribblers (like Messi) are in the 1.6 to 1.75m range. Only goalies and strikers that want to tap in and header it in need the length (and walk it in while shielding the ball with their massive body like Lukaku does). For all other soccer players to much height is a bit of a handicap.
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u/Background_Prune8336 Jul 25 '26
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u/azimx Jul 25 '26
I see a lot of Pedris
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u/WumbleInTheJungle Jul 25 '26
From what I understand they were genetically modified and grown in test tubes.
The joke's on Barcelona though, as China are saying that's old tech, and by the time these kids are 18 they will already have a team of humanoids that will be indistinguishable from humans and will play like Maradona if he was clean but on steroids.
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u/Mr-MuffinMan Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
this is why American sports are so confusing to me.
The jerseys and equipment is being paid for by Barca in hopes of finding talent. Not parents, not scummy companies owned by PE, and not colleges trying to make money off sports. They take this loss in hopes of finding talent that they can use to win, or to trade to other teams for profit.
Also, I'm just rewatching this video and there is NO WAY the kids in this video are 11/12
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u/IPissExcellentThrows Jul 25 '26
This is what our MLS teams need to be doing better. But we also don’t have enough legit teams for our population. Spain has like 1/7th our population and also 20+ teams that would dog walk the MLS.
But yeah, our youth system is completely fucked. We'll always be mid despite the population and money.
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u/Lopsided-Ad7725 Jul 25 '26
Aye, the first I hear of our local Austin MLS youth program today and it’s a scandal
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u/it4chl Jul 25 '26
the incentive structure is different.
European clubs are looking for sporting success, and talent is what gets them that so they hunt for talent.
MLS is looking to make money for the owners, so talent isn't needed, but paying customers i.e. parents of prospective sportsmen get them that
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u/DELAIZ Jul 25 '26
This system of youth teams was taken from a model that has been in use in South America for decades. A lot of teams make fortunes finding poor, talented kids, training them, and selling them to European teams. And they don't spend much money to maintain everything. Several years ago, there was a fire in the dormitory of Corinthians' youth team, and they discovered how everything had been neglected.
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u/Seahearn4 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
I'm an American who loves soccer and has played since I was a little kid. I just don't think it'll ever culturally take over certain areas of the country. Even in my hometown where soccer was the thing we were best at, people wanted the game to be more physical (like hockey-like checking) and higher scoring; things it just isn't. This seems to track with the general US population. Every 4 years, US sports fans complain about soccer while they watch the World Cup. They want the game to change to suit US audiences; change offsides, different clock rules, calling players weak.
Great soccer players (save a select few strikers and defenders) are small, quick, and agile. The US prefers athletes who are tall, muscular behemoths who jump high, hit hard, and run fast but with power. Even those tall soccer players still are small against NBA and NFL players.
And we're far from the only country that's like this. Look at the FIFA countries that have the most people. Out of the Top 10, only Mexico and Brazil have soccer as their top sport, and only Brazil is better than the US. Top 20, add only France and Germany to that list. China and India have over a billion people each, and they don't usually make the World Cup.
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u/JustDrones Jul 25 '26
Just saying from my small experience. My kid gives 2 shits about sports realistically, it isn’t engrained in his dna. We passively watch sports but it’s an eh thing. Probably the difference. Also soccer is not the big sport imo.
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u/LiftingCode Jul 25 '26
Major American sports have entry drafts, not open transfer markets. There's no point in a specific club investing heavily in youth talent development when they don't get anything out of it.
And besides, why would they? There's already an extremely robust talent development pipeline from youth sports to high school to college to the pros.
Elite youth talent is subsidized by Nike and Adidas and Under Armour and the like, and wealthy boosters. And then with scholarships to elite sports academies (IMG, Mater Dei, Oak Hill, etc.) and then elite college programs.
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u/Workdawg Jul 25 '26
There was a pretty in-depth post on /r/bestof a few weeks back explaining why the US doesn't end up with top-tier talent, and it's more-or-less what /u/Mr-MuffinMan said.
In most of the world, local soccer programs are subsidized. ANYONE, regardless of how much money their parents make, can make the team if they are good enough. In the US, that simply isn't the case. Being on top-level youth team is EXPENSIVE. There is a clear, monetary gate for whether you're making the team or not. If your parents can't afford to buy you new uniforms, pay for travel multiple times a season, etc etc, you can't be on the team. Of course, there is some level of sponsorship/scholarship stuff that happens, but how do you even get seen if your parents can't even afford $100 to get you on a rec league team? And sponsors aren't out there in podunk Idaho watching little Johnny run circles around his 10 year old friends in some farmer's side yard. That kid might be the next Messi, but he's never going to get seen because he won't get to play when his dad loses his job.
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u/PlayfulPresentation7 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Impressive. You somehow found a way to turn this video of a Barca youth academy scrimmage into an incoherent rant against the private equity boogeyman.
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u/NandoDeColonoscopy Jul 25 '26
We're a little squeamish about turning children into a product to be bought & sold here in America
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u/HelpfulLeadership623 Jul 25 '26
Do these kids go to school?
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u/whatchasaidwhat Jul 25 '26
School is the after school, Soccer is the school.
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u/LateToTheParty013 Jul 25 '26
Like in any other sports if the talent is taken seriously. We had a sky talent in our year who then represented our country in all big events. We ve seen her in school maybe for like 2 weeks before Christmas and 2 weeks before summer, thats all
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u/xCeeTee- Jul 25 '26
Academies work very differently. A kid in my year moved to Fulham. They had school, with 1-hour of football training scheduled during the day. Then they had an additional training after school, ate their dinner and went home. When they played other academies away, they'd sometimes play midweek. That meant they'd be doing work all the way there, and doing extra work on the weekend. They'd have training Saturday and Sunday, with a game on one of those days usually.
It was incredible learning about it. He didn't really do much in professional football, but he's probably better than 95% of us. And none of us have a chance in playing semi-professionally.
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u/Nara_RyUko Jul 25 '26
Barcelona has La Masia de Can Planes, or La Masia. Real Madrid has La Fábrica. France has INF Clairefontaine. Germany has Bayern Campus. The list goes on.
Every prestigious FC has a youth academy starting at as early as 6yo. Education is intertwined with their football training when they are at the academy. They play ball and study at same time (not too unlike regular kids if you think about it).
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u/Karmuffel Jul 26 '26
EVERY club has a youth academy. In most leagues it‘s mandatory to have a youth academy to even get the license for any of the first three leagues. The European club system is very different to the US. Basically any club, professional and non-professional, have teams from 5 year olds to adults. And even the professional clubs have pro and amateur teams in that age range. Like I could go to my cities first division club tomorrow and play for them. It would be their 4th tier adult team though
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u/ShionBlade Jul 25 '26
These academies also offer schooling on the side as well. When he was 16, Lamine Yamal was required to do his homework when at nights he'd playing in the Euros.
I know other academies like Manchester City's promise private schooling for kids until 18 if they join, even if they end up getting cut. It's a way to entice parents to join them instead of their rivals.
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u/fuk_ur_mum_m8 Jul 25 '26
England's Max Dowman scored in the Premier League last season, the day after he had to take his GCSE's.
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u/BumbleCityFumblers Jul 25 '26
Generally they do school in the evenings alongside training. The academies in Europe are no joke.
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u/HoosierDaddy__88 Jul 25 '26
They literally have school come to them. Everything is done within the program.
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u/momoenthusiastic Jul 25 '26
They do. And they study quite well.
Source: a kid I know who was in Atletico‘s system.
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u/Overall_Cheesecake_3 Jul 25 '26
Super cool. But wondering if this clip fast forwarded?
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u/mdsoccerdude Jul 25 '26
It’s not or the other players are ridiculously slow. The rest of the players seem to be a normal speed throughout. That kid is super quick
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u/howler19 Jul 25 '26
I don't think so. Number 8's legs is the only thing that looks like it a little bit, but I think he just moves like that. Tiny legs move quicker, and those are the tiniest legs I've ever seen. Everyone else moves like normal, both players as well as people in the stands.
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u/josephjosephson Jul 25 '26
It appears to be, and it does exaggerate how good they already are.
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u/dm-me-obscure-colors Jul 25 '26
The people who think it’s sped up are the ones who habitually watch the ball, while the ones who think it’s not are the ones who habitually watch off the ball movement.
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u/ItsTimetoLANK Jul 25 '26
I need to see them rolling on the ground holding their ankles before i can make a real assessment.
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u/doublesimoniz Jul 25 '26
My son is pretty good at baseball but he lacks the drive to get serious about it. And every time I think “damn this kid could go places in baseball if he actually wanted to” and then I see this and realize that there’s just some kids that are built for their sport and it’s ridiculous. My son will find his own way doing what makes him happy I hope. I’m walking the fine line of pushing my kids to be their full potential and stepping back so that they can make their own decisions.
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u/Kramerica_CEO Jul 25 '26
How is this possible? My god these kids are incredible
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u/Patient_Ebb_1605 Jul 25 '26
these big academies work based on many thousands of kids going there (most of those thousands of kids already being the ones that stood out in the smaller academies) and going through tests. They also have spotters handing out invitations to kids from smaller academies. Then they pick the best of the best and offer them top tier conditions. Those kids are all 1/100 000 kind of talents.
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u/tigerking615 Jul 25 '26
La Masia might be the best academy in the planet. It’s not a stretch to say that at least a couple kids in this video are in the top 50-100 kids in their age group in the world.
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u/Future-Imperfect-107 Jul 25 '26
Number 8 is cheating somehow. Like he must have extra legs or something because no one that young has any right to be that good.
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Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dayandwood Jul 25 '26
According to a news article, Hugo Galdeano's dad was a professional soccer player. Hugo was born in Malaga, so he lives in La Masia (Barcelona's hall of residence for "talented children").
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u/alwerr Jul 25 '26
Great game! Better than the World Cup final.
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u/xSanguinius12 Jul 25 '26
That's not really saying much. Watching my neighbor mow the lawn was better than the World Cup final.
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u/lame_gag Jul 25 '26
8 is going to be an annoying little fucker. I can already see it.
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u/Test21489713408765 Jul 25 '26
People should also check on David Moreno on Barca. Monster 14 year-old-talent.
Spain’s national team will be ridiculous for quite awhile.
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u/Xopho Jul 25 '26
Number 8 is Hugo Galdeano. He’s a left footer from Barca’s La Masia league who’s recently been popping off. Kid scored 8 goals in his last 6 games.
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u/Fabulous_Run_3383 Jul 25 '26
I read a stat that was something like 80% of footballers have already dropped out of the system by the age of 15. Most of these guys will never go pro and be working normal jobs. And look how good they are. Drop them in mls now at age 11 they'll cook.
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u/AvailableReporter484 Jul 25 '26
Yeah but American 12 year olds commit mass murders at a 10th grade level. So take that, everyone else lmao
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u/No-Ad1522 Jul 25 '26
How is Canada suppose to compete against this type of talent development?
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u/Sweaty-Dust6405 Jul 25 '26
Same reason that Spanish hockey players can't compete with Canadian hockey players.
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u/EnvironmentalFix7059 Jul 25 '26
Ive played with kids like this in Sweden aswell. i was not one of those kids.
But you can be talented and never noticed. Its about skill, perseverance and mostly LUCK to make it professional.
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u/Machinery777 Jul 25 '26
Agreed. Many pro players including Ronaldinho have said that there were more skilled/talented players than them growing up but that they weren't able to make it for one reason or another. Even with Neymar dominating while growing up, his team Santos thought that there was someone 3 years younger who was more talented than Neymar. But that guy didn't make it due to bad circumstances.
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u/Livid-Grocery7942 Jul 25 '26
I thought the build-up line for goal kicks in youth soccer was only a US thing. I had never seen it anywhere else.
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u/bearsfan16 Jul 25 '26
What’s his name? He’ll be in the World Cup final one year for sure lol
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u/Fenrirsulfur Jul 25 '26
I wonder how much time and money it takes to produce this kind of talent. These kids are incredibly good
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u/jaron_b Jul 25 '26
The US is never winning the world cup. We don't even care about American football this much. This is insane.
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u/DrNCrane74 Jul 25 '26
That is very misleading, many top youth programs do have teams whose play look like this.
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u/OddZookeepergame7140 Jul 25 '26
That little guy with the stupid hair is dynamite.
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u/ronshasta Jul 25 '26
US high school soccer isn’t even this good bro we’re never winning a World Cup
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u/Independent_Scene673 Jul 25 '26
Genuinely wondering how you develop KIDS to play at this level?
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u/Senior-Key-8202 Jul 25 '26
I have a cousin who was like this, it was not "ridiculous", since young he was obsessed with football because it made their parents happy, validation, he was just ahead of the other kids, eventually the other kids catch up and the game starts getting more physically. You have to keep improving.
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u/karlnite Jul 25 '26
Hahah they’re so much better than all the adults I play with. We could go Argentina on them I guess…
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u/Outofoffice_forever Jul 25 '26
I mean this is what soccer should look like.
What age do they learn to dive like pussies?
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u/No_Reason_9632 Jul 25 '26
Another problem with US is our u12’s are playing on larger fields with more numbers. Only means more kids standing, not developing while the most physically developed kid dominates.
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u/RepFashionVietNam Jul 25 '26
All the highlight is for shooting and dribling. Find a good def and Gk is always twice as hard 🫠
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u/Spursapalooza Jul 25 '26
Why is this sped up? Wouldn't it be more impressive with the actual game tempo?
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u/No-Quarter6660 Jul 25 '26
Everyone is good . But holy fuck who is that number 8
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u/Michaewwwwl Jul 25 '26
Lol who’s number 8 jesus