FC Barcelona opening two new academies, in Missisauga and Edmonton

[jloome]

http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/2016/01/14/fc-barcelona-expands-canadian-academies-including-mississauga.html

[Fort York Redcoat]

First Whitecaps in London and now this...g:D

[Joe Kool]

http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/2016/01/14/fc-barcelona-expands-canadian-academies-including-mississauga.html

Pretty cool I guess. My son would lose his shit but I think I will leave him in the Ajax rep team instead of trying out in Mississauga. Not sure if it would be worth the mileage. I had a look at their website. If they have a great program and facility then that is cool and the price looks comparable to rep levels for the most part but I would always be initially worried they are selling a dream and brand more than anything. Would be good to hear from some parents that had or have their kids in the BC academy. It's funny, OSA is making all the parents of my kid's team do a course that cautions the "making the bigs" approach to youth soccer and the focus should be on having fun, staying fit and playing for the love of soccer more than career development in the off chance the kids make it to any pro level. They say maybe 1% of kids playing ever make a living at playing soccer. The FCB Academy website is selling the dream big time. The more well coached kids in Canada the better I guess for Canada.

[Richard]

I'm curious as to who they hire as staff, these so called academies are kind of pointless if they're going to have the usual local staff develop players. It seems more like a marketing tool than anything else.