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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hello, Can someone be kind enough to answer few questions about Barca academy.
1. How many total kids in the academy?
2. Where did the Nova club practice before finding a permanent training facility.
3. Does Barca teach foot skills such as maradona, Cruyff turn, Ronaldo chop etc...
4. What is the player to coach ratio?
5. Is it really worth money ($3000-$5000)?

Thank you taking the time to answer.[/quote]

1. I don't know the exact number, but I would estimate that they have around 300 players total.  For boys they go from U8-U19 and for girls they go up to U16.  Older age groups have one team per age group with 20-22 players.  Younger age groups have normally 1-2 teams per group, although U10s boys have 3 teams.  
2.  Barca Nova practiced at Evergreen, which is a great facility with excellent turf fields, from day 1.  This was a very smart choice in terms of quality of the training facility.  Barca shares the field space with FCV, Loudoun, and a couple of non-soccer teams.  Starting from the end of last season, some of training sessions were moved to Morven park, which has decent grass fields, but horrible traffic around the rush hour.  This created scheduling challenges for parents with multiple kids (e.g., one kid is scheduled to practice at Morven, while the second one is scheduled to practice at Evergreen).   This problem is not unique to Barca, but they did not have this problem the first year, when all teams practiced at the same facility.  
3.  Not really.  They mostly focus on passing and receiving the ball, spacing, team shape, etc.  Some parents don't like that the club does not teach 1v1 skills, while others have their kids learn such skill outside the club's training.  
4.  In the first year, they had 1-12 ratio or better, but things changed in the second year.   Older teams, for example, have one coach per team so the ratio for some teams could be 20+ per coach.  For the youngest teams, it is still 12-1 or better, but the ratio will change as the teams expand as they move up the age groups. I would say what they do is probably on par with other clubs in the area.   Of course, some clubs will have a worse ratio, while others will have a better ratio. 
5.  Whether it is worth the money depends on the individual circumstances of the player and the family.  Barca is one of the more expensive programs, but the coaching is generally good and all teams try to play a similar style.  The results vary.  For high level players, the main issue is the quality of the player pool (with the possible exception of their 2001 team), when lower level players may play on the same team with high level players.  This affects the overall competitiveness of their teams.  If your kid is a top level player, he and she can move to a higher level team that plays in DA or ECNL and you will either pay less or get more in terms of college scouting (DA or ECNL showcases, higher level tournaments, etc).  If your kid is an above average player, but not elite, and is placed on one of the top teams at Barca, the club could be a good fit.  Hope this helps!  [/quote]

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