What Makes Current Barca This Good – The Mental Aspect Some telling statistics from Phil Ball’s article : “These are 3 (Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi) of the 442 players who have gone through the Masia system since it was inaugurated some 30 years ago ; 41 of them have gone on to make their debuts with the first team, and 38 others made it to top-flight status. That leaves 363 who fell by the wayside, although I don’t know the figures for those who made it professionally outside of the Spanish first division. Two of the most prominent are Cesc Fabregas and Mikel Arteta, but that still leaves 361 to account for . ” These are just the statistics of those players who have actually ‘graduated’ from La Masia, that is, those who played there till they were deemed to be too old for the youth team and not good enough for the senior team. Several more would have fallen by the wayside even before this. These statistics show how much heartache and heartburn is there in ‘La Masia’ for those who do no...