Barcelona face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals this week having made history in the round of 16. Their 7-2 second-leg win at home to Newcastle was the biggest by a Spanish side against an English opponent in 60 years.Robert Lewandowski played his part. Even at 37 the goals continue to flow. But the result was achieved with the club’s youngest team in knockout history, its average age brought down to 25 years and 18 days by the inclusion of five players from their La Masia academy.
By fielding Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi and Marc Bernal among those five, Barcelona overtook Ajax as the club to have given the most starts to teenagers in the Champions League knockout stages. They used another from the bench in Xavi Espart.
Together with Yamal, Cubarsi, Bernal and others including Fermin Lopez, Gavi and Eric Garcia, Espart, an 18-year-old midfielder likened to Philippe Lahm by manager Hansi Flick, is one of 14 players from their academy to have featured at senior level this season.
Datawrapper
This content is provided by Datawrapper, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Datawrapper cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Datawrapper cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Datawrapper cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies
Allow Cookies Once
A CIES Football Observatory study in January determined that Barcelona’s under-contract academy graduates have a transfer value nearly three times as high as any other club’s in the world.
Xavi Garcia Pimienta has watched them flourish proudly.
The 51-year-old, who most recently worked as Sevilla’s head coach, has Barcelona in his blood and a unique understanding of the inner workings of La Masia developed over the course of three decades, first as a player, then during a 17-year spell as a coach.
He won the UEFA Youth League with Barcelona’s U19s in 2018, beating Chelsea in the final, and was even talked…
2026-04-07 12:00:00
