Valencia have a virtuous cycle of youth, and the team's success every year inspires the young players in the team who believe that success can be achieved at Paterna.
Thanks to the perfect youth training system, Valencia Football School has produced many world-class players, which makes Mestalla's future full of hope. From key members of the Spanish national team, José Gayà and Carlos Soler, to rising stars Koba Koindredi, Yunus Musah, Hugo Guillamón, Uros Racic and Toni Lato, Valencia now has 12 of its own academy players representing the first team in 2021/ 22 seasons of La Liga. This makes them one of the most special teams in the league.
In the first seven rounds of the new La Liga season, at least one of his own academy players has played under José Bordalás in each round, nine of whom are 23 years of age or younger. Having good channels of communication and mobility between the echelons and the first team is one of the main reasons valencia have become the youngest team in La Liga this season, with an average age of only 24.7 years.
In the opinion of Valencia's youth director, Sean Bai, these first-team appearances are an important part of the success of the club's youth training. When seeing that Valencia's young players have so many opportunities to play in La Liga, the choice of potential trainees will also be more inclined to train at Paterna.
Speaking about how the Valencia Academy attracts potential young players, Sean Bay continued: "I would say, 'Look at the echelon players who make it to the first team'. I think our stats speak for themselves, in fact Valencia have been one of the youngest teams in La Liga for many years. Even in the B team, we have always trusted the youngsters and given them opportunities. People clearly see the path from the youth team to the first team, so they are very interested in joining us. They see that Valencia has been competing, they know we will trust them, give them opportunities, we will grow with them until we are on the top stage. “
Like other outstanding graduates, the success of Gaia and Soler did help promote the academy, even though some of their players moved to other clubs such as Jordi Alba, Isco, Paco Alcácer, David Silva, Albelda, Albiol and Ferran Torres. Discussing the latter, Sean Bay said: "When young players like Ferran Torres move to big clubs like Manchester City, Barca and are selected for the Spanish national team, young players follow his example. He told all the academy players at Valencia that they could do it too. "In addition to Felan Torres, there are currently three players in the Spanish national team who have grown up from the Valencia academy. Sean Bay added: "It's a great dream for them, and for us it's a great achievement. ”
The Valencia Academy's scouting efforts are dedicated to recruiting young talent from the Valencia region, other parts of Spain and even overseas, as exemplified by the recently high-profile Yunus Moussa and Kang-in Lee. Commenting on the academy's talent acquisition strategy, Sean Bay said: "Our focus is on bringing the best young players from the Valencia region to our academy, which is the backbone of our project, because most of the players are from Valencia locally and we have a special responsibility on our shoulders. In addition, we have a lot of players from outside Valencia and Spain who have been adding value to our main player base. Therefore, we will take the initiative to contact Valencia scouts in different markets, regions or leagues, let them watch the youth national teams at all levels and give us feedback. These young players from different regions bring more diversity and healthy competition to the academy. “
Whether the players come from the Valencia region or abroad, their talent and tenacity will be on full display at Paterna. Sean Bay explains. "Our captain Gaya came here every day to train from 200 kilometres away when he was young. This persistence allows him to keep improving and surpassing everyone else, which is the same for all other players, as long as he works hard, he will gain something. In addition, like Yunus Moussa, when he came to the Valencia U19 youth team from Arsenal on his first day, he did not question why he did not play in the first or second team, he was just constantly trying to compete, grow and improve. So when the opportunity came, he was ready for the challenge, whether in La Liga or in the U.S. national team. “
Educational purpose and long-term strategy of Valencia
For Sean Bay and his colleagues at the Valencia Academy, recruiting top talent is just the beginning. "It's often overlooked that players often need a long period of growth and preparation before they land in the top flight." The head of youth training explained.
As for how Spanish clubs can do this, the key is that coaches and management need to adopt a long-term rather than short-term development strategy. Sean Bay revealed: "The secret of our success lies in the long-term planning of the players and the attention paid to each individual. Speaking about the individual development of players, he added: "There are many academies that 'produce' players like factories and let them play like machines. And we focus on each player because everyone is unique and they may have very different ways of developing and growing, which is influenced by different circumstances and backgrounds. At Paterna, we try to give them the feeling of home and identity, so we try to grow with the players and accompany them through tough moments, and of course, the good times are no exception. I think that's the biggest difference we have from other academies. “
In addition to working hard to develop the technical, physical and tactical qualities necessary for the players, the Valencia Football School has invested a lot of resources in a number of emerging areas. As the supervisor explains: "We have started a number of new projects, one of which is psychoeducation, which helps to work more closely with young players, and this aspect is something that a lot of people overlook. In addition to teaching players about the pitch and the gym, we also focus on the education of players off the pitch. That's one of the tenets of our academy, which is 'We educate people, we train footballers'. Technically, you need to be good; psychologically, you need to be the best, you need to have a winner mentality. Therefore, we set up this project both to cultivate the champion mentality of the trainees and to strengthen their quality education outside the stadium. “
Globally recognized international standards
In addition to continuously delivering fresh blood to the Valencia first team, their world-class academy has also won international recognition. The CIES Football Observatory, a well-known football data research institute, regularly reports on the positive results achieved by the Valencia Football School.
For example, according to a report released by CIES in November 2020, at that time 28 players from the Valencia Academy played in the five major leagues. This figure is among the best in the world, behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain, ranking fifth. Another report, also from CIES, shows that as of May 2021, Valencia's own academy players have played tenth of all teams in the five major leagues. Last season, they even allocated 27.5% of their playing time to the football school's top young players.
In addition to its outstanding performance at the data level, Valencia has also been nominated for many of the football industry's top awards, one of which is the Youth Football Award from the European Club Association. The award aims to encourage the club's young players to actively participate in local social responsibility activities. "We have agreements and partnerships with many schools to engage in the community together, because these actions ultimately help shape the values behind the club." Sean Bay explains.
Another nomination for Valencia was the Best Internationalisation Strategy 2021 prize from the World Football Summit. At the award ceremony, Valencia was praised for its sincere sharing of their teaching methods with the world. In this regard, Sean Bay said: "We don't just want to promote our brand to the world, we want to really help good young players everywhere. We pay attention to the ideas of different partners everywhere because we don't want to just unilaterally give them a request and then let them deal with it. We want to tailor the program to the specific situation and the environment, and provide them with different projects according to these situations. Therefore, we have many creative partners overseas. “
Whether in Spain or abroad, the players of the Valencia youth team know that they are in a solid and well-established organizational structure, a club that allows them to keep improving. There are no obstacles between the Valencia echelon and the first team, and the good players always have the opportunity to show their talents in La Liga.
About La Liga
The Spanish professional football league LaLiga (La Liga) is a global, innovative and socially responsible sports league, as well as a leader in the field of leisure and entertainment. The league organizes the Spanish professional football leagues , La Liga and La Liga , with 20 La Liga clubs and 22 La Liga clubs , affecting more than 2.7 billion people worldwide in the 2019/20 season. Headquartered in Madrid, La Liga has 11 permanent offices and 46 foreign representatives in 55 countries and territories around the world. In 2014, La Liga opened an office in Shanghai, China. In 2020, La Liga, together with Mediapro and Xinying Sports, established a joint venture company SFCM, which continues to make efforts in the field of sponsorship and brand licensing. At the same time, the league is actively involved in social activities through its fund LaLiga Genuine, which is the only professional football league in the world with a league of intellectually handicapped players.