Top African Players That Came Through La Masia Academy
FC Barcelona’s La Masia Academy is without a doubt one of the most, if not the most esteemed football academy in the world.
Known for their mandate to educate the students under their care on the rudiments of football, training them to play football the Barcelona way from a young age and also moulding them character-wise into good young men.
The list of great players that have passed through La Masia is long and inspiring, players such as Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Bequests, Fabregas, Pique, Thiago Motta, Icardi to mention a few.
Although based in Catalunya, Spain, La Masia is known to be home to young talents from several continents around the world looking for a means to develop and nurture their football talent under world-class tutelage.
A good number of those La Masia Academy players have been African, which is why we take a look at the best current African players to have passed through the famed Barcelona academy.
Adama Traore
Although he represents the Spanish National Team, Adama Traore is very much African. If the name is not enough indication, he was born in Spain to Malian parents which makes him eligible for this list.
Traore joined La Masia as an 8 year old in 2004 and after 11 years of learning in the Barca academy and making one solitary appearance for the Barcelona first team amidst being a regular for Barcelona B, he left in 2015.
The winger joined Aston Villa in the summer of 2015 and got his first taste of consistent first team football, he moved to Middlesbrough the following season and then to Wolverhampton wanderers where he currently plays.
Adama Traore has forged a reputation for himself as probably the fastest player in the Premier League today, blessed with incredible pace and power, he’s grown into a key player for Wolves, displaying the potential Barcelona saw in him in the first place.
Andre Onana
Cameroonian goalkeeper, Andre Onana is famous for his key role in helping Ajax reach the 2018/19 UEFA champions league semifinals. Still, a lot of people don’t know he spent his formative years in La Masia.
Born in Nkol Ngok, Cameroon, Onana was first discovered by the Samuel Eto’o Foundation, before he then joined the Barcelona academy in 2010 as a 14-year old.
After 5 years in La Masia, Andre Onana moved to Ajax in 2015, playing for the second team, Jong Ajax in his first season, before then getting promoted to the Ajax first team the following year.
The rest, as they say, is history, the now 24-year-old Onana is one of the best goalkeepers in Europe right now and also the first-choice goalkeeper for the Cameroonian national team.
Fabrice Ondoa
Fabrice Ondoa and Andre Onana have a lot of similarities, both Cameroonian goalkeepers; both joined the Barcelona academy after being discovered by the Samuel Eto’o Foundation, both play for the Cameroonian national team and to top it off, they are cousins.
Ondoa joined La Masia in 2009 and was even rated ahead of his cousin Onana, for a long time, he was a youth League champion with Barcelona in 2014, Ondoa appeared to have the world at his feet, having excelled in the tournament.
Since then, however, his club career hasn’t taken off. He moved to Gimnastic, then to Sevilla’s B team, and he’s now at KV Oostende in the Belgian top flight, where he’s struggled minutes in the last 2 years.
Despite failing to establish himself at senior level, Ondoa has almost a half-century of Cameroon caps and was an Africa Cup of Nations winner in 2017. However, he’s subsequently been displaced from the national team by his cousin, Andre Onana.
Keita Baldé
This Senegalese winger is one that football enthusiasts are familiar with having already played for some of the biggest clubs in the world, Keita Baldé has been around for a bit.
He was born in Arbúcies, Girona, Catalonia, to Senegalese parents, Keita joined the FC Barcelona academy in 2004 and was a key part of their youth team until he was sent on loan to satellite club UE Cornellà in 2010 for disciplinary reasons.
Keita further strengthened his reputation as one of the best teenagers in the game at the time, scoring 47 goals for Cornellà’s youth side that season and turning down the chance to return to Barcelona, attracting the interest of Real Madrid and Manchester United.
He would eventually join Lazio in the summer of 2011 and progress from the youth team to the main team where he was a key player for a year until he joined Monaco in 2017 for €30 Million, he has subsequently gone on to join Inter Milan and now Sampdoria on loan.