La Masia, Barcelona’s state of the art training facility, is renowned for producing many of the world’s best footballers and it currently shows no signs of stopping.
However, reports emerged this week that Manchester City are about to snap up 16-year-old centre back, Eric Garcia, from a furious Barcelona for a reported £1.6million.
Garcia, regarded as one of the brightest talents at La Masia, has been brought in to provide competition to Kinetic Academy Graduate, Yeboah Amankwah.
Amankwah, a commanding centre back, signed for City from Kinetic last December for FREE from our successful U16 side.
🔵 new start in my career hard work has only begun @ManCity #MCFC pic.twitter.com/YfmMZZbVgd
— Yeboah Amankwah (@yeboahamakwah5) December 4, 2016
“It is remarkable to think that a player the same age and ability can cost them (City) over a million pounds” said Amankwah’s former coach, Adam Knight.
“It just shows you the bargain that clubs are getting from the players that we produce. Hopefully one day we can get some recognition for our continued hard work.
“Yeboah is a great kid and he even came back to hand out the medals last weekend at the Football Fest fundraiser. He is apparently seen as the ‘General’ of the squad and hopefully this attitude can give him the edge in the future.”
When questioned on the comparison of Croydon to La Masia, Knight joked that Croydon had been referred to as the concrete Catalonia in the past.
“I heard this term last year when it was reported in the national papers. Croydon has so much talent and I am just glad that our players continue to get the opportunities that they deserve.”
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All hail the concrete Catalonia! South London’s golden square of talent