Barcelona's La Masia is thrashing Real Madrid's La Fabrica

Blaugrana youngsters are making a bigger impact

Barcelona and Real Madrid are in a constant battle. They look at each other, both in the race for titles, signings each summer and, of course, in the image they present to the rest of the world. How could it be any other way? Their academies also give us a lot to talk about, with both clubs wanting to have the best talents in the world. Yet, which of the two clubs gives more chances to academy players?

The answer right now is a resounding 'yes' in favour of Barcelona, who are placing much more faith in youth than Real Madrid. Los Blancos can claim that many of their youth players are important, but they aren't in their own first team. We're talking about players like Marcos Llorente, who is now very important at Atletico Madrid. There's also Achraf Hakimi, Sergio Reguilon or Martin Odegaard himself, who is now on loan at Arsenal. The reading offered by this first analysis is that Real Madrid have one of the best academies in the world, and these players have given performances and earned the club a lot of money, but none of them have had a place in the first team at the club.

At present, players such as Victor Chust, Sergio Arribas, Hugo Duro and Marvin Park have shone under the stewardship of club legend, Raul Gonzalez, at Castilla - the B team of Real Madrid that plays in Segunda B. However, their arrival in the senior team has been more out of necessity and obligation due to the many and numerous absences due to injury, rather than because of a conscious decision to put faith in them. You only have to look at the statistics. Between those four they have barely added 233 minutes in LaLiga Santander and they have only played 44 minutes between the four in the Champions League. In the match against Atalanta, Hugo Duro and Arribas had minutes because Zinedine Zidane needed fresh legs and there was no one else to play from the bench.

On the other hand, the situation is very different at Barcelona. The academy has importance to the first team, either because of the difficult financial situation or for other reasons, but Ronald Koeman does trust young players. From the beginning of the season he handed important roles to Ansu Fati, although an injury cut that short. Since that moment he has played Oscar Mingueza in defence and Ronald Araujo has become a regular fixture. In more recent matches, Ilaix Moriba has broken into the team with great force. Riqui Puig has also had a presence in some matches, whilst others like Konrad de la Fuente have had a chance.

In total, the youngsters from the Barcelona youth squad have played 2,800 minutes in LaLiga Santander and 600 in the Champions League, a statistic that reflects La Masia's importance ahead of La Fabrica. The Barcelona academy has a presence in the club's senior team and, in that regard, it thrashes its Real Madrid counterpart of La Fabrica. Barcelona see the future with a large presence of homegrown players, while Real Madrid, despite signing many young players like Vinicius, Reinier, Takefusa Kubo and Rodrygo, don't give many chances to the homegrown players that are trained at the club.