Barcelona to present new La Masia project



On Wednesday morning, Barcelona will present their 'La Masia 360' project, an ambitious plan - with a budget of 3.3 million euros - to improve the education provided for the club's youngsters.
Up until now, the renowned La Masia youth academy has focussed on improving its students as sportspeople, but under the new plan the Blaugrana will aim to improve their all-round development.
As such, the Catalan club will provide an Integrated Support Services area, with 16 tutors, two psychologists and five teachers, who will provide extra support for the youngsters at the Ciudad Deportiva whenever they are not training or recovering from injuries.
Furthermore, the club will allocate an education professional to travel with teams whenever they embark on trips that will last longer than one week.
The families of the young prospects will also be involved, and will be given guidelines of good habits for the athletes to maintain at home, with advice on nutrition, rest, healthcare and social media use.
Barcelona's main aim with this project is to provide those within La Masia everything they need to face the challenges of life, even if they don't end up making it as a footballer or sportsperson.
Rather than look to Barcelona B to strengthen the squad, this time around the Blaugrana turned to the transfer market to fill in important positions within the team.
While Denis Suarez and Aleix Vidal did spend a season each within La Masia's ranks, it would be disingenous to consider them Masia graduates as they spent little time there and wasn't the club which most impacted each player's development.
Many have pointed to Luis Enrique's overconfidence when rotating as the main reason behind the unexpected defeat, but perhaps the lack of homegrown players shows a more worrying trend, as it is not a short-term error in thinking but rather a more overt long-term change in modus operandi that is to blame.
It had been 14 years since the last time only one starter raised within the Barcelona school started a match, and Saturday's encounter was a far call from when back in 2012, Tito Villanova started an all-Masia XI.
Meanwhile, the club itself and techincal secretary Robert Fernandez insists that all is well and that in a few years time a new generation of players will make their mark.
Yet until then, one thing is clear: it is getting harder and harder to make the jump from the B team to the first team, as Luis Enrique and the club look elsewhere to meet demand and remain atop the global game.

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