Wednesday, 14th November, 2012
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique believes that the Catalan giants would find it exceptionally hard to compete with Real Madrid without their strong youth academy.
The Blaugrana have been blessed by a number of talents coming through the ranks, giving them world-class players for no cost, with stars such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Victor Valdes, Pedro Rodriquez and Carles Puyol all regular first team fixtures.
These homegrown talents, and more, have helped power Barcelona to the top of world football, a fact Pique recognises.
And the defender feels with the large sums of money being splashed about by Real Madrid, on the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema, Barcelona would be in a tough spot were it not for La Masia’s youth academy.
"We have been lucky enough to have been represented by people from the youth academy", Pique told Spanish radio station RAC 1.
"Barca have always found it very difficult to compete with Real Madrid [in the transfer market].
"In recent years, how much have Madrid spent?
relatedNewsStory"There are many Barca players who have formed the spine [of the team] for free.
"If it hadn’t been like that, we would not have have been competing for every title."
And Pique also stated his belief that new coach Tito Vilanova understands the value of La Masia just as former boss Josep Guardiola did.
"Guardiola was able to understand that La Masia gives us everything and now Tito is another Pepe.
"On the economic level, we are unable to compete with what Madrid can do."
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