Archive for the ‘Special’ Category
November 17th, 2009 | 
Author: 
La Masia
Welcome back to the second edition of “The Ones Who Made It.” The image that you’re all probably wondering about is of a young boy who is walking through the gates of La Masia. This is where all the players who feature for Barcelona’s youth teams stay. From Juvenil A to Barcelona B, if any player wants to make it to the first team, he has to walk through these gates first. This gate has seen many faces over many years, such as Guardiola, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Valdes, etc.. The list goes on, so in this edition we will tackle another 5 players who made it from Barcelona’s one of a kind youth system to world football. Buckle up for safety, sit back and enjoy the ride. First up…
That's How Successful We Are
You’re sitting at home with nothing to do, waiting for the international week to pass you by.. waiting for normality to resume and your beloved Barcelona to rock it out on the pitch in front of millions of fans.. Well that ain’t happening for quite some time, but until then I thought I’d entertain you people with this article. The picture above is an analysis of the national players that are playing for each respective club. You can see clearly that we have the most Spanish players from our youth system playing for us (although some are not shown) We have 8 players who are Spanish and are products of our youth system and astonishingly, 9 players who are part of our first team who were also produced by our extraordinary youth system. Believe it or not folks, Arsenal.. despite Arsene Wenger’s huge fetish for children does not have one English player from his youth team who can start! All the English players he has are poached (yes I’m not afraid to say it 
) Anyways, enough basking in our never-ending glory and lets get this party started!
Zlatan Ibrahimovic may be known for his prolific goalscoring ability and his strength in the air, however there are a few more things than those that meet the eye. Ibrahimovic has a wonderful array of body tattoos that are concealed beneath his clothes, and others that show partially on his arm. There are 11 tattoos so lets get started.
- 1) Two Poker Cards
In Pep We Trust
A man looked upon as an idol in his playing days, is now looked upon as an idol because of his managerial successes. On July 21 2007 he was appointed as the manager of a regulated Barcelona B side that lacked the fire to turn it on. It turned out that he was the fire they were lacking and after playing 38 games in the Tercera Division, he ended up taking Barcelona to the top of the table and consequently to the Segunda B play-offs. With 25 wins, 8 draws and 5 loses (70 GF, 41GA) there was no denial that Pep Guardiola was the man for the job. However was he really the type of person who could take over one of the biggest clubs in the world and turn it around immediately? After a 4 – 1 dubbing to Real Madrid in the 2007/2008 season, that witnessed the rise and fall of Frank Rijkaard’s Barcelona, Joan Laporta announced that Rijkaard would be relieved from his job as Barcelona manager effective at the end of the season, and be replaced by the manager that they brought in last season. The manager who helped the B team gain promotion in his first season. Many people voiced their concerns over his appointment; “He’s inexperienced” they said. “He lacks the managerial tactics that most big-name managers have.” But nobody gave him a chance.
He started his job by revealing that Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Samuel Eto’o (as well as other) were surplus to his plans and that he wanted them gone by the start of the new season. Consequently, Ronaldinho, Deco, Zambrotta, Edmilson, Giovanni Dos Santos, Lilian Thuram, Oleguer, Ezquerro and Crosas were offloaded to different teams. People questioned his motives, his awareness of what he was doing and simply decided that Barcelona was doomed. I mean who would dare sell Ronaldinho and Deco? A pair of deadly play-makers that wove the Barcelona machine? Samuel Eto’o proved that he was ready to stay and fight for his place in the lineup throughout the preseason.
