Jordi Quintillà is one of those La Masia graduates that had to leave Barça in order to forge their own path in the world of football. Throughout the years, he has played in France, the United States, Switzerland, and now Cyprus. The player from Lleida spoke with Flashscore, Blaugranagram’s partner, in a recent interview.
Quintillà came up with very successful cohorts, such as eulofeu, Rafinha Alcántara, Sergi Roberto, Balliu, Luis Alberto, and even Alex Grimaldo, and he remembers them well, “even at Barça you could see they had something special. I remember that year, when we finished third in the Second Division, and they were outstanding, playing matches where we completely dominated our opponents.”
When talking about La Masía, Quintillà remembers also the mental preparation, “the psychologists mentally prepare you to accept that you probably won’t make it, but at the same time, on the pitch, they prepare you to be ready when you do reach the first team.”
For him, the competitiveness at Barça’s youth system is key, “I think the competitiveness makes a big difference, because the hunger there is different, I believe, from many academies around the world.”, and also “players there are incredibly hungry to reach the first team. Obviously, everyone there wants to make it, and that significantly increases the level of competition. “
For a youngster, leaving La Masía is not easy, “at Barça, the game is played extremely with the ball, and that’s what players like. When you leave Barça, when the quality isn’t what it was at Barça, you have to start running, you have to start being much more aggressive, you have to start covering for your teammates, you have to start thinking much more about things that aren’t related to playing with the ball.”
