The exceptional training work of the LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank clubs goes back much further, when schools such as Lezama, Zubieta, Mareo or Tajonar began to instill in the new generations their philosophy and particular vision of football and life. But, above all, to become a role model for any sporting entity worth its salt. These quarries are also the place where the most decisive players grow as footballers, who bring emotion to key moments like this exciting end to the season.
In addition to generating spectacle and entertainment, the current competition format emphasizes values ??such as competitiveness, solidarity and sporting merit, issues that shape sport in general and football in particular. Hence, the rejection of the Super League has been unanimous in observing that these basic principles would be at risk, as well as the threat that it could increase inequalities between clubs because “it restricts football to an elite, instead of a sport for all, replacing an open competition based on merit with a closed league only for a small group of clubs,” LaLiga points out. “The competitive rhythm would also drastically decline due to the lack of European aspiration in the clubs, and with this a good part of the excitement and spectacularity would be reduced,” they add.
Another worrying aspect is not being able to win over the fans. “The lack of exceptionality and capillarity of this model can lead in the medium and long term to a loss of interest on the part of the general public,” he adds. In fact, without fans supporting this idea, the economic impact of the Super League according to the first studies would cause a drop of 32.1% in the impact of the professional football industry on the GDP (from 1.37 to 0.93% ) and the loss of almost 60,000 jobs.
Furthermore, the consequences could affect the current football ecosystem marked by solidarity between clubs, synergies and, most importantly, the economic impact on the clubs would affect the resources they invest in maintaining the quality of their academies. It is the story of Isco, Pedri, Ander Herrera and many others who, thanks to the effort and resources of their parent clubs to feed and train their youth teams, have been able to achieve the greatest sporting successes.
One of the latest exponents of the long list of international goalkeepers who emerged from the youth categories of Athletic Club (from the current red and white goalkeeper Unai Simón to Carmelo Cedrún, passing through Andoni Zubizarreta, José Ángel Iribar, among others), the Chelsea FC footballer He shared a dressing room in his two seasons with another talent that emerged from Lezama, who has seduced a European great, Manchester City’s French central defender, Aymeric Laporte. The announcement of the withdrawal of clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City from the new Super League would allow them for now to continue enjoying their aspirations to play in the Champions League final and become European champions for the first time in their respective careers.
In just a season and a half in the elite, the great captain of Real Madrid trained in the Sevilla youth academy has already shown signs of his personality, leadership capacity and offensive vocation, revealing himself as the ideal candidate to pick up the baton of another great leader of Real Madrid fans. as was Fernando Hierro. By the way, in that Sevilla FC directed by Joaquín Caparrós, the international center back led a new generation of new talents from the LaLiga Santander club’s youth system such as Antonio Puerta, Diego Capel and the current Nervionense captain, Jesús Navas.
The young Barça talent is the latest great exponent of that school that is La Casa Amarilla, the UD Las Palmas quarry, synonymous with touch and elegance, which has brought such illustrious names to our football as those of Juan Carlos Valerón or David Silva . Since he was a child, he began to show signs of his quality, even doing a trial with Real Madrid before committing to UD Las Palmas. His meteoric progression with the yellow club led him to debut as a youth with the first team in LaLiga SmartBank, months before his signing for FC Barcelona was announced, where he has definitively exploded in his first season.
A competition like the one announced would not only increase the difference between rich and poor with the corresponding loss of resources for the quarries that trained these stars, but it would end up affecting the motivation of the footballers, caused by the lack of European aspirations of clubs like CA Osasuna, Málaga CF and Real Zaragoza, who dream of bringing their name back to the Old Continent.
Emerging from the inexhaustible CA Osasuna youth academy, and after a three-season stay at Olympique de Marseille, his almost 300 games for Chelsea speak for themselves. In his nine seasons at Stamford Bridge, the Navarrese full-back starred in countless duels on the wing against another old acquaintance from the Tajonar Sports City, the former Arsenal FC and current Real Sociedad footballer, Nacho Monreal, with whom he arrived to coincide in his three seasons in the first team of the rojillo club.
After his training period in the Valencia CF youth team, the current Real Madrid midfielder aroused the attention of the most powerful clubs on the continent in the ranks of his home club, Málaga CF, with which he earned merits to win distinctions. prestigious individuals such as the Golden Boy (2012), considered the “golden ball” for players under 21 years of age, or the Bravo Trophy (2013), to which he added a Bronze Boot that was the icing on the cake of a great season in which he led the under-21 team to the Euro Cup.
Another representative of the Spanish delegation at PSG, the Aragonese midfielder led Real Zaragoza’s junior team to victory in the 2001 LaLiga Promises tournament (former Brunete tournament), for which he was crowned MVP (most valuable player of the tournament). . Encouraged by his father, the former soccer player and former sports director of the Aragonese club, Pedro Herrera, young Ander debuted seven years later in the first team. After a promotion to LaLiga Santander and two more seasons at La Romareda, Ander – a native of Bilbao, like his father – went on to join Athletic Club, where he played another three seasons before packing his bags for Manchester United. .
Herrera, by the way, has been one of the many football protagonists (players, coaches…) who have publicly shown their opinion against the new Super League: “If it advances, the dreams of the fans and the teams that do not “They are giants,” he said in a tweet as soon as the composition of the competition was known. For footballers like Ander, the idea of ??leaving aside the hobbies that saw them born as professionals continues to outweigh a series of million-dollar promises that could end up affecting clubs with a strong youth philosophy. As is also the case of their old rival in the Basque derbies, Real Sociedad.
The Real Madrid full-back is one of the latest great talents to emerge from the Real Sociedad quarry, a club that aspires to renew its two LaLiga titles from the early 1980s with a team made up entirely of footballers from the brand new Zubieta facilities, and where international artists such as Zamora, Satrustegi and López Ufarte, among others, have stood out.
Since his arrival in Zubieta at just 13 years old, he became the great hope for the future of Real Sociedad. Five years later, in his debut with the Txuri Urdin first team, the Frenchman emerged as one of the most decisive footballers in the last promotion in San Sebastián along with other footballers from the house such as Xabi Prieto, Elustondo, Agirretxe, Zurutuza and Carlos Martínez, among others. After four more seasons at the Reale Arena, the “little prince” signed for Atlético de Madrid, where he played another five seasons before joining FC Barcelona, ??already consolidated as one of the great stars of the LaLiga Santander firmament.
The Real Sociedad quarry from which both players came has been, precisely, recognized on numerous occasions as one of the best in the world. It so happens that a project like the Super League would reduce the value of the clubs outside the competition by 66%, reducing the resources that these types of clubs can dedicate to grassroots football.
Another of Real Madrid’s national talents trained far from La Fábrica, specifically in the RCD Mallorca youth academy, a club with which he made his debut in LaLiga SmartBank at the young age of 17. Two seasons in the vermilion first team were more than enough to start a new battle between the most powerful clubs that ended up opting in favor of the whites.
His international progression is a reflection of the work well done at the Pamesa Sports City, where he completed his training in the Villarreal CF youth team along with other footballers today consolidated in LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank such as Alfonso Pedraza, Dani Raba, Aitor Fernández (UD Levante ) and Miguelón Llambrich (RCD Espanyol de Barcelona). His four seasons at Villarreal CF, divided between the reserve team and the first team, catapulted the Madrid midfielder into the elite with a brief spell at Atlético de Madrid (his first club until the youth team) before joining Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium. .
Another example of a brilliant emergence for which it took five games in the RCD Espanyol first team to awaken the attention of a Villarreal CF team specialized in attracting young talents. At the La Cerámica stadium, his solvency in height and speed in the tackle automatically earned him a place in Marcelino García Toral’s starting eleven, which was enough for the Ivorian centre-back to become Manchester United’s first signing under technical direction by José Mourinho.
Like his former teammate Ander Herrera, the current Manchester United midfielder and one of the most promising players among those trained in the Real Oviedo youth academy, he also grew up in a family of footballers. Not in vain, his father Juan Manuel Mata also played in this club of which Mata is a recognized supporter and in whose lower categories he began to stand out. After being recruited by Real Madrid, he moved to Valencia CF before beginning his English adventure, first in the ranks of Chelsea and later at Old Trafford.
After showing his talent in the LaLiga Promises tournament, where he reached the final in 2012 with the Valencia CF youth team, the Levantine winger became the great hope of the sports city of Paterna until he made the leap to the first team in Che at just 17 years old. . Three seasons in LaLiga Santander were enough for him to become one of the idols of Mestalla before becoming one of Manchester City’s most famous signings.
Players all of them of superior stature and who do not forget that they might not be competing in their current teams if it had not been for the trust, resources and time invested by their clubs of origin.
Precisely, these income from the clubs and LaLiga would also suffer a significant setback, with a decrease of 43% (apart from the crisis caused by the pandemic, they would stop earning around 1,720 million euros) and their value market, which would collapse by two thirds (-66.1%). This circumstance would also have effects in relation to the contribution of the clubs themselves to the Higher Sports Council and the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Thus, the collateral damage would affect other sporting disciplines, which would stop receiving the contributions approved in the Viana Pact and which would commit LaLiga to a contribution of 200 million euros over the next 4 years. The machine would stop in the same way as the spectacle of football as we understand it today.
