More than just Lamine Yamal and Gavi: How FC Barcelona used La Masia to build the best women’s football team in the world

FC Barcelona: Driven by success, motivated by critique

Barcelona Femeni have not been an overnight success. Formed in 1970, it has been a long road to becoming one of Europe’s elites.

They became an official part of the club from 2002, after gaining financial support from them during their earlier years, but it would be take 10 more years to win their first title and another 13 to gain fully professional status.

In fact, the year after taking that formal step, they lost four consecutive league titles, finishing second each time.

They reclaimed the crown in 2019/2020 and have won it every year since.

With domestic success consistent, their desire to conquer Europe grew stronger with each trophy lifted. They eventually reached their first final at the seventh attempt, only to be beaten 4-1 by competition heavyweights Lyon.

It was a significant turning point in their history, lighting a fire that burns to this day.

Two years later, back in the final, the Catalan side thumped Chelsea 4-0 to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the first time in their history.

Fast forward four years, on their fifth consecutive final, Barça are now on the brink of a fourth title and would become just the third club to achieve such a feat should they beat Arsenal.

Such success over the last decade has not been prompted by a shift in philosophy, but rather a willingness to stick to it even if it means losing.

“It is easy to stick to an idea when you’re winning; it’s harder when you’re losing,” former sporting director Markel Zubizarreta told The Guardian.

“It’s not ‘women’s football’, it’s football. There is no point in playing a certain way for seven or eight years and then it is different for the first team.

“If you put the television on, you can’t see if it’s men or women, you can see that it’s a Barcelona team.”

Being such a force of the sport does not come without critique, though.

Barcelona have reached a point where even being on the wrong end of one or two results throws into question the legitimacy of their dominance.

Unsurprisingly, however, that is what drives them to show up as the best version of themselves.

“When we lost to Man City in the [UWCL] group stage, it gave [us] a lot of motivation to show that we can do better,” said forward Caroline Graham Hansen.

“We came back from that but it hangs over us that a lot of people thought our run to be good in the Champions League was over.

“That was a motivation to show that we are still good, we can still compete against the best and we will still do whatever it takes day by day to make our performance better.”

Since that loss, they have gone undefeated, dispatching Wolfsburg and Chelsea with ease in the quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively.

Now, their third English opponents of the campaign await.

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