Ex-La Masia director explains why Barcelona's academy struggles to produce strikers

Former La Masia director Jordi Roura has provided some insights into why Barcelona’s renowned academy has struggled to produce high-level strikers.

La Masia is widely regarded as the best football talent factory in the world, having churned out the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Cesc Fabregas, Andres Iniesta, Gerard Piqué, Pep Guardiola, Sergio Busquets, etc.

Barcelona have recorded incredible feats with La Masia, like when Tata Martino fielded an entire 11 of academy graduates in the 2013/14 season, or when Messi, Xavi and Iniesta occupied all the spots on the Ballon d’Or podium.

However, they have struggled to produce a truly world-class striker, with Mauro Icardi, the most notable name in the past two decades, not playing a single game for the senior team.

With Robert Lewandowski set to leave the club at the end of the season and Ferran Torres proving inadequate to Barcelona’s needs, the conversations around La Masia’s struggles to produce a top talent in that position have resurfaced.

Amid the club’s financial struggles recently, Barcelona have been able to rely on their academy to produce players for nearly all other positions on the pitch. However, theywill have to pay top dollar to replace Lewandowski in the summer. 

Roura, who served as La Masia director for 7 years, from 2014 to 2021, explained the academy’s philosophy tends to underestimate the quality of goalscoring, prioritising ball-playing.

“I remember that whenever an important player in the centre-forward position emerged (in the academy), alarm bells would immediately ring,” he said, per The Athletic.

“Sometimes, you’d receive reports saying, ‘He’s a good player and all, but he only scores goals.’ The suggestion was that a player who only scores goals doesn’t have ability, when that is the most important thing in football.

“Sometimes it reaches a point where this obsession with excellence, with the Barcelona DNA, can lead to situations that are somewhat misguided. I’d say,  ‘Well, if he only scores goals, let’s take a look at him, because goals are the most important thing on the market.’

“At Barcelona, we’re looking for a profile (of striker) who can also link up, who can come and receive the ball. Sometimes that No. 9 typical of other teams here becomes a false nine,” Roura says.

“What we ask of them, which is essential and basic, is that they are goalscorers—but without giving up the work of initiating the press. We are also looking for a profile who can maintain the continuity of play, who will come to receive the ball in midfield, who is capable of linking up with others, and who plays well with his back to goal.”