FCBARCELONA.CAT

02.04.2009 17:35

Busquets, the latest home-grown international

Jesús Carrillo

With twenty minutes to go in Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier between Turkey and Spain, Sergio Busquets won his first international cap. That makes three players from the Barça academy that have made their debuts with Spain in less than a year.

Busquets joins a long list of home-grown talent that has made the leap from the Barça academy to representing their country. In recent years, Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol (2003), Gabri (2006) and Andrés Iniesta have all broken into the Spain team.

Eight internationals

A total of eight players in the current Barça senior squad have made their international debuts after learning their trade in the Barça academy: Puyol, Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta, Bojan and Sergio Busquets for Spain, Lionel Messi for Argentina and Gai Assulin for Israel.

Lionel Messi and Gai Assulin

Messi played his first game for the full Argentina team in 2005, a few months after winning the under-20 World Cup in Holland at the age of just 17. Gai Assulin has also played once for Israel.

These eight players have taken over from previous generations such as Albert Celades, ‘Chapi' Ferrer, Sergi Barjuán, Josep Guardiola, Guillermo Amor, Ramón Calderé, Juan Carlos Pérez Rojo, Àngel Pedraza and many others that have progressed through the Barça youth squads to international recognition.

International honours

In addition, these players have accumulated an impressive array of international honours. Messi won Olympic gold, was runner up in the Copa América and winner of the under-20 World Cup. Xavi also won an Olympic silver medal while Gai is the youngest players ever to win a full cap with Israel.