Our Academy coaching staff are back home now from Barcelona as the collaboration between Gabala and the Spanish club evolved into the next stage - the full project started in December of 2011. 

From 4 to 13 February it was a very productive trip by our delegation including Academy director Ali Yavash  (head of the trip team), Ali Yavash (director of Gabala Academy, trip leader), Nail Kerimov (Academy deputy director), Halim Ficici (Academy head coach), Famil Khalilov (U-17 coach), Eldaniz Suleymanov (U-16 coach), Huseyngulu Guliyev (U-15 coach) and Sardar Gafarov (U-14 coach).

The trip started watching Barcelona”s match against Real Sociedad before seeing the three games of Barcelona in Academy leagues U-9, U-13, U-14 tomorrow. The delegation team made some exchange of views with the group of Amalio Moratalla, who was in Gabala in December last year about their performances.

The trip group also viewed training operations of U-17 and U-16 before meeting their coaches. The next day, the trip group got a chance to visit some sports spots in Barcelona like the Olympic Stadium, National Institute of Physical Education and facilities of Barcelona football club.

La Masia was something of interest to see its new building after moving from the previous office near Nou Camp Stadium. Its director Carlos Figueroa gave in-depth details about how they involve youth to the academy, concern on their education and daily life in family, as well as on their nutrition. the realm that was lavished as vast expence as. Beyond the Academy trainings, the all students are under control of tutors and teachers getting engaged with just football and education, so they can relax only weekend.

Totally forty nine footballers settled in La Masia from as large part of the world as from Spain to Korea, Japan, Cameron, Greece in 12-18 age group. They live with other 26 youth members of different sports in the same building of La Masia. Catalonians are emphasized to pick as players, and besides Barcelona, there are also footballers from other Catalonia cities Girona, Tarragona, Lleida and etc., where the taxi service of the club acts for students.

  

There are four man-made and five live turf in the academy together with medical treatment center. Barcelona have no an indoor playground because of the fine weather all year. But there are also some special training pitches of the home team, which are closed for public use by Guardiola”s order.

Gabala also met with Barcelona academy director Guillermo Amor watching trainings of Barcelona B yesterday with Guillermo discussing many details of the full training with Spaniard specialists. There were some players training which we all see them at times. Five coaches were working on the team B simultaneously with different jobs. At the weekend, our staff watched also the match of Barcelona B against Cartagena within the Secunda Division, another league of Spain.

It was of very interest to see coaching actions of Barcelona which we also saw in December last year in Gabala by the group of Josep Moratalla. Barcelona”s players are trained by the same coaching system and tactics which are all different from other football clubs of the world. The all footballers are coached under ball exercises where you can see just some no-ball actions only for 10 minutes, and they don’t even use body stretching actions. It is not common to see Barcelona youth in a fitness hall as they are trained only with the ball even for physical exercises.

Gabala”s delegation watched Barcelona U-18 against Ajax within Champions League contest of UEFA. The Gabala representatives viewed also the King's Cup semifinal between Barcelona and Valencia at Nou Camp.

The visitation ended after seeing performances of Barca in the League for U-9, U-11 and U-15. It vas the conclusion of the educational seminar held by Barcelona coaches in Gabala in the last December, visually attending those trainings. In May, Gabala will be visited again by Josep Moratalla with the same coaching group that run the December seminar and the Spaniards will review the effects of the earlier training actions. Further stage of the proceedings will be planed as well.