September 10: Barcelona Has Become Smarter! Deco Copies Real Madrid's Model, Selling Academy Players While Keeping Future Options

Real Madrid's practice of selling talented Castilla academy graduates to bring in real money has long been regarded as a smart business model. Now at Camp Nou, Barcelona sporting director Deco has also begun to use a similar approach. This summer, facing La Masia youngsters who were temporarily unable to break into Hansi Flick's first-team rotation, Deco introduced a clearly defined new strategy. Instead of continuing the previous approach of simply sending players out on loans without a clear plan, Barcelona prioritized permanent transfers to generate cash flow while retaining future sell-on percentages or buy-back rights in contracts. From Jofre Torrents and Toni Fernández to Álvaro Cortés, these young players' transfers not only helped Barcelona recover valuable liquidity in the market but also left the club with future options on its books.

For these ambitious young talents, Flick actually provided them with a full stage to showcase themselves during preseason preparations. Many youngsters played extensively in friendly matches under the German coach, and some had even made their professional debuts in La Liga. However, at Barça Atlètic competing in Spain's Segunda División, the development space for these players could easily reach a ceiling. Deco's consideration was highly practical: rather than allowing them to lose momentum in a lower division, it was better to send them to high-level European leagues for tougher challenges. Among these transfer operations, the most notable was Toni Marx's move. After making only two official appearances for Barcelona's first team, Portuguese side Braga decisively paid an initial transfer fee of around €11 million. With additional performance-related clauses, the final return from the deal could increase further. In the transfer agreement, Barcelona secured a buy-back clause and ensured a share of future resale profits. Jofre Torrents, who also made four first-team appearances last season, was signed by Dutch giants Ajax for around €6 million, becoming another example of Barcelona converting academy value into revenue.

This formula of finding a balance between giving up ownership and maintaining control was fully demonstrated in several last-minute deals on transfer deadline day. On September 1, 18-year-old midfield prospect Guille Fernández, who had played 62 matches and scored eight goals for La Masia teams, joined La Liga side Mallorca for a fee of €2.2 million. Barcelona sold only 60% of his ownership rights, keeping 40% of the stake and a future priority buy-back option. Another attacking talent of the same age, Toni Fernández, also moved to Serie A club Venezia for a transfer fee close to €4 million after making two first-team appearances, with Barcelona again setting up a protective structure involving buy-back and future sell-on provisions. Álvaro Cortés, the center-back who played the full 90 minutes in Barcelona's La Liga match against Alavés in mid-May, moved to Belgian club Antwerp for around €3 million, with Barcelona once again retaining a future share of transfer revenue in the agreement.

After this series of moves, La Masia's overall economic contribution to Barcelona this summer reached an impressive level of nearly €60 million. This figure included not only direct transfer fees but also previous sell-on income and training compensation. In Deco's calculations, every agreement had a carefully designed pricing logic. If the cash offer from another club was attractive enough, Barcelona could loosen its control over the player's economic rights; if the offer was lower, Barcelona would use higher sell-on percentages and buy-back clauses to offset potential future losses. The real test period will begin in 2028, when multiple buy-back clauses will officially enter their activation windows. Before then, Deco and the scouting team will closely monitor the development of these young players. The better they perform, the more Barcelona stands to benefit, either by bringing them back to Camp Nou at a controllable cost or by waiting for them to generate another significant financial return for the club in the transfer market.

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