author: Jeff Rusnak
source: Sun Sentinel
date: 30 November 2008
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com
The American approach to developing home-grown players could take a turn for the better if FC Barcelona is granted an expansion team in Miami. And no one, perhaps, stands to benefit more than youth players in South Florida.
Barcelona CEO Joan Oliver was in Miami recently to fine-tune the club's MLS expansion bid with fellow investor Marcelo Claure. While here, Oliver addressed the club's plans to create a youth soccer academy in Miami that would mirror the Barca model in Spain. Oliver said Barca is insistent on beginning MLS play in 2010 and would open the Miami academy next year.
The club would begin by seeking South Florida players who would be nurtured in the Barca style. "We will set up the academy before starting the team, as soon as possible," Oliver said. "It would probably be in a couple of months. At this moment, we have the system in place since we already have academies in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico..."
Unlike other European powers who buy most of their top talent, Barcelona has been successful in building its roster through an in-house academy. The current graduates include Lionel Messi, who began at Barca at age 12, Bojan Krkic (age 9), goalkeeper Victor Valdes (10), and midfielders Xavi (11) and Andres Iniesta (12).
Like the Barca model, the Miami club would seek out talented players as young as 12, what Oliver called, "the ideal scenario" for instilling the Barca ethic. That ethic is to not only win, but to play Barca's beautiful game, in which skill and imagination take precedence over speed and strength. "That is absolutely part of our DNA," Oliver said. "We are the essence of this kind of playing. We are not able to promise that we will win every year, but we will promise to play in this way. We will replicate that in the South Florida team."
Oliver envisions that a Barca Miami team will include young players who emerge from its academies, and high-salaried Designated Players who would leave the senior team to play here at the end of their careers. French striker Thierry Henry comes to mind as a DP candidate.
Oliver concedes that the Miami franchise wouldn't be able to match big Barca in terms of overall quality, and there's no evidence that there's a Messi in our midst. But, with Barcelona in the neighborhood there may be a greater likelihood of at least improving the aesthetic of MLS and the American game.
Read the full and original article here
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Barcelona weighing Miami and East Coast cities
Asked about the rumours saying that that Barcelona president Joan Laporta and general director Joan Oliver travelled the United States last week to hold talks on the creation of a sister team in the US (read more here), a Barcelona spokesman has confirmed in an interview with Florida regional newspaper The Miami Herald that Laporta and Oliver were in Miami exploring the market but stressed that talks of starting a team in the United States are still in the preliminary stages.
Laporta and Oliver would also have visited New York and are weighing a few East Coast cities.
South Florida regional newspaper Sun Sentinel claims that the five-year strategic partnership agreement that Barcelona signed in May of this year also gives Barcelona the opportunity to explore ownership of an MLS team and doesn't exclude that Barcelona will also visit other cities than Miami.
Asked about the matter, Miami FC president Aaron Davidson has denied to the paper that Barcelona officials have spoken to his club or to football event management company Traffic Sports, the owners of Miami FC: "I don't know anything about it. I don't know where it started, I don't know where it's going, but I do love the idea. We have a lot of surprises up our sleeve, but this is not one of them."
MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche did not want to enter the question if Major League Soccer (MLS), the professional football league in the United States and Canada, has met with Laporta and Oliver last week: "We meet with Barcelona regularly, but I would prefer Barcelona to address any interest in an MLS expansion team or specific markets."
Miami FC fansite Miamisoccerfan claims that a meeting did take place last week between a very interested investor and MLS in Miami. The meeting also involved some other local parties that are interested to join in. It couldn't be confirmed if the investor was in fact Barcelona or Miami FC.
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