La Masia vs La Fabrica: Numbers show Barcelona academy’s dominance over Real Madrid’s in La Liga
Barcelona’s sheer commitment to La Masia has long been one of the defining features of the club.
At the same time, Real Madrid have traditionally been associated with a different approach to developing and using their academy players.
There has been a long-standing argument that La Fabrica produces more footballers for other Spanish clubs than La Masia, although a comparison based purely on the number of academy graduates currently represented across the Spanish top flight presents a different picture.
For what it is worth, it is important to note that this is not an assessment based on opinion.
Rather, the comparison looks at players who were actually developed in the youth systems of Barcelona and Real Madrid before moving into senior football.
As such, Barcelona have 39 players trained at La Masia currently represented among the clubs covered in the league, with a combined market value of €854 million.
La Fabrica, meanwhile, has 22 players, with a combined market value of just €218 million.
To put Barcelona’s dominance in perspective, only three clubs in the competition do not have a La Masia graduate in their squad, while every team in the top flight has at least one player developed by either Barcelona or Real Madrid.
La Masia’s reach extends beyond Barcelona
La Masia has produced players who have achieved legendary status in their career. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
The biggest difference comes when Barcelona’s current squad is removed from the calculation.
La Masia graduates playing for clubs other than Barça have a combined market value of €214 million, which is still considerably higher than the €128 million attributed to La Fabrica graduates playing outside Real Madrid.
Even for the sake of the argument, it must be noted that Barcelona themselves account for a substantial part of La Masia’s total.
Their first-team squad contains 10 La Masia graduates, with a combined market value of €677.5 million.
Those players are Pau Cubarsi, Eric Garcia, Alejandro Balde, Xavi Espart, Gavi, Marc Bernal, Brian Farinas, Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo and Lamine Yamal.
At Real Madrid, by comparison, their La Masia representation comes through Marc Cucurella, valued at €60 million.
On the other hand, their three listed academy graduates are Raul Asencio, Alvaro Carreras and Thiago Pitarch, with a combined value of €90 million.
The full La Masia and La Fabrica breakdown
La Masia has a bigger footprint than Real Madrid’s La Fabrica in La Liga. (Photo credit:JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)
The club-by-club data provides a clearer picture of how widely the two academies are represented.
La Masia: 10 — Pau Cubarsi, Eric Garcia, Alejandro Balde, Xavi Espart, Gavi, Marc Bernal, Brian Farinas, Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, Lamine Yamal
Market value: La Masia €677.5m | La Fabrica €0
La Masia: 1 — Marc Cucurella
La Fabrica: 3 — Raul Asencio, Alvaro Carreras, Thiago Pitarch
Market value: La Masia €60m | La Fabrica €90m
La Masia: 1 — Alejandro Grimaldo
La Fabrica: 2 — Marcos Llorente, Pablo Barrios
Market value: La Masia €20m | La Fabrica €75m
La Masia: 1 — Ilias Akhomach
Market value: La Masia €12m | La Fabrica €0
La Masia: 3 — Hector Bellerín, Marc Roca, Marc Bartra
La Fabrica: 1 — Diego Llorente
Market value: La Masia €7.4m | La Fabrica €2.5m
La Masia: 3 — Sergio Gomez, Hector Fort, Take Kubo
Market value: La Masia €47m | La Fabrica €0
La Masia: 1 — Robert Navarro
Market value: La Masia €6m | La Fabrica €0
La Masia: 1 — Ilaix Moriba
La Fabrica: 2 — Marcos Alonso, Javi Rueda
Market value: La Masia €15m | La Fabrica €7.2m
La Masia: 1 — Peque Fernandez
La Fabrica: 1 — Fran Gonzalez
Market value: La Masia €3m | La Fabrica €3m
La Masia: 3 — Arnau Martinez, Diego Lopez, Sergi Canos
A young Arnau Martinez in action for Barcelona’s youth academy. He now plays for Valencia (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
La Fabrica: 1 — Diego Lopez
Market value: La Masia €13m | La Fabrica €2.4m
La Masia: 2 — Alex Calatrava, Javi Puado
Market value: La Masia €11.5m | La Fabrica €0
La Masia: 2 — Oriol Rey, Pablo Cunat
Market value: La Masia €3.3m | La Fabrica €0
La Masia: 3 — Dani Cardenas, Pelayo Fernandez, Ivan Balliu
La Fabrica: 2 — Raul De Tomas, De Frutos
Market value: La Masia €3.2m | La Fabrica €12.4m
La Masia: 1 — Raul Moro
La Fabrica: 1 — Lucas Torro
Market value: La Masia €3.2m | La Fabrica €2.5m
La Fabrica: 1 — Victor Chust
Market value: La Masia €0 | La Fabrica €3.5m
La Masia: 1 — Carles Alena
La Fabrica: 2 — Antonio Blanco, Mariano Diaz
Market value: La Masia €3m | La Fabrica €10.3m
La Fabrica: 2 — Mario Martin, Borja Mayoral
Market value: La Masia €0 | La Fabrica €8.2m
La Masia: 4 — Marc Casado, Arnau Comas, Adria Altimira, Adama Traore
La Fabrica: 1 — Yeremay Hernandez
Market value: La Masia €26.3m | La Fabrica €25m
La Masia: 2 — Adam Aznou, Haitam Abaida
La Fabrica: 2 — Carlos Dotor, Dani Lorenzo
Market value: La Masia €6.2m | La Fabrica €2.7m
La Fabrica: 1 — Manu Hernando
Market value: La Masia €0 | La Fabrica €1.40m
What do the numbers say?
La Masia is the heart of Barcelona’s youth system. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
Taken together, the data provides a clear statistical comparison of the two famous academies.
La Masia has 39 players in the dataset compared with 22 from La Fabrica, while its total market value of €854 million is almost four times the €218 million figure attributed to Real Madrid’s academy graduates.
The difference remains significant even after removing Barcelona’s own players.
La Masia graduates outside Barça account for €214 million, compared with €128 million for La Fabrica graduates outside Real Madrid.
The figures therefore offer a significant perspective on the long-running debate surrounding which academy supplies more players to Spanish football.
For years, Real Madrid have prided themselves on providing young talents, and while it may be true in terms of their distribution across Europe, with players like Nico Paz, Jacobo Ramo and Chema Andres making waves, the numbers clearly prove that Barcelona’s footprint is much bigger in La Liga.
View publisher imprint
