Here’s how the decline of a ‘Taxi Service’ could create huge trouble for Barcelona’s training academy La Masia

La Masia Academy is known for producing one of the best talents in football.

Here’s how the decline of a ‘Taxi Service’ could create huge trouble for Barcelona’s training academy La Masia

La Masia taxi service. (Source: FC Barcelona & Sport)

As part of the ongoing economic conversation that the club is going through FC Barcelona find themselves in yet another pickle. The Club Management has made the decision to put an end to the 25-year-old Taxi service. It was used to drive La Masia players door-to-door in order to attend training sessions at the La Masia Sports City. The Taxi fleet used to benefit over 80% of the academy players.

The club has put away a Taxi fleet of about 30 vehicles and 40 drivers to drive non-resident boys and girls from their homes to school, and then to the training premises and back home. The club has pointed to economic reasons as the motive for the recent decision. The management has also proposed to implement a bus/coach service that will ply from certain main points in and around the city.

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The official position of the FC Barcelona board is, “It is restructuring the mobility of the players to optimize as much time as possible and to be able to reach the maximum number of points for Catalonia, the club being aware that Catalonia is the engine of grassroots football.” While the club is clear on its position, certain players and their parents will face the majority of the problem. As they may live far from the pickup and drop points and will have to make multiple trips to ensure that their wards get picked up and dropped off safely.

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Netizens have taken to Twitter trolls, calling the club more ‘broke’ than ever. Although the club remains in a financial ‘bottleneck’, it is unclear whether the club was indeed losing a significant amount of funds over this service.

Related: Here’s how Barcelona can invite legal trouble after debut of 15-year-old Lamine Yamal 

The Latest Gem- Lamine Yamal – The La Masia Wonderkid

Lamine Yamal
Lamine Yamal. (Source: Sport)

Barcelona have discovered their latest Wonderkid in Lamine Yamal, the 16-year-old Spaniard. After signing his first senior contract, the speedy winger has featured in multiple matches for Barcà. The latest being the ‘friendly’ against Tottenham in the Joan Gamper Trophy, where the youngster came off the bench, and had a hand in 3 out of the 4 goals.

The player has lived the recent years of his life in the La Masia residence of Sant Joan Despí and has become a La Masia super talent under Xavi. The recent decision of the club to cancel the Taxi service for their players and the subsequent decision of certain players to leave the club because of that possess a dilemma. As to how many of such “wonder kids” the club will miss out on for the same reason. 

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