Full name Club Atlético Osasuna Chairman Luis Sabalza League División de Honor | Ground Capacity 4,000 Coach David García | |
Ground Tajonar Facilities, Pamplona,
Navarre, Spain | ||
The cantera (quarry) of Spanish professional football club CA Osasuna is the organisation's youth academy, developing players from childhood through to the integration of the best prospects into the adult teams.
Contents
- Background
- National Competitions
- International Tournaments
- Structure
- Head coaches
- Juvenil A
- Juvenil B
- Superliga Liga de Honor sub 19
- Divisin de Honor Juvenil
- National competitions
- References
The final category within the youth structure is the Juvenil A (Basque: Gazteak A) under-18/19 team which represents the club in national competition. The successful graduates then usually move to the club's affiliated team for younger players, CD Iruña, or to the reserve team, Osasuna B which are also considered part of the cantera due to being stages in progression towards the senior team, albeit competing in the adult league system.
The academy is based at the club training complex, Tajonar, which is often the name used informally to refer to the system itself.
Background
The top football clubs in the Spanish leagues generally place great importance in developing their cantera to promote the players from within or sell to other clubs as a source of revenue, and Osasuna is no exception. Their youth recruitment network is focused around their home region of Navarre and there are collaboration agreements in place with the small clubs in the region.
Navarre has a population of just 640,000, a small catchment zone for an elite football club, and additionally Osasuna faces a battle for some of the region’s talented young players due to the presence of Athletic Bilbao, whose Basque-only player recruitment policy includes Navarre in its definition. They have an affiliate team (UDC Txantrea) in Pamplona, and several promising players who might otherwise have been expected to join Osasuna, the closest major club to their home towns (such as Iraizoz, Gurpegui, Llorente, San José and Muniain) were recruited by Athletic instead.
After a spell in the late 2000s during which Osasuna had few new academy graduates joining their main squad while Athletic reached a European final with a team full of Navarros, the trend reversed - Osasuna's relegation from La Liga in 2014 provided an opportunity for several academy players to integrate into the side in the less intense atmosphere of the second tier, and they played a role in the club's return to the top level in 2016. Meanwhile Athletic recruited hardly any youth players from Navarre in the same period.
According to a 2016 report, Osasuna had a total of 11 homegrown players (as per UEFA guidelines, 3 years of training between 15 and 21 years old) still at their formative club, with another 5 at other top clubs across Europe. Moreover, 4 of the former youth players - Raúl García, Monreal, Javi Martínez and Azpilicueta - earned Osasuna €31million in transfer fees and became Spanish internationals; the 5th and most recent departure, under-21 midfielder Mikel Merino, brought in a further €4 million. As a club from a small city with limited financial resources, the youth department's ability to train such coveted players (as well as provide others to the senior squad) is a vital source of income.
Another analysis in 2016 concluded that the Navarre region was the most successful in Spain for producing top-level footballers per head of population (25 players, equating to 39 per million residents) thanks to the efforts of both Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao in recruiting and developing local talent.
National Competitions
The Juvenil A team play in Group II of the División de Honor Juvenil as their regular annual competition. Their main rivals in the league group are Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad. The under-17 team, Juvenil B, plays in the Liga Nacional Juvenil which is the lower division of the same structure.
The team also occasionally participates in the Copa de Campeones and the Copa del Rey Juvenil, qualification for which is dependent on final league group position. In these nationwide competitions the opposition includes the academy teams of Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla and Real Madrid.
International Tournaments
It is possible for Osasuna Juvenil to participate in the UEFA Youth League, either by winning the previous season’s Copa de Campeones or by way of the senior team qualifying for the UEFA Champions League group stages, but so far neither has been achieved.
Structure
The core of boys from the Navarre region are first introduced into the Tajonar Futbol 8 teams at around 10 years of age and advance by an age group every season through Infantil, Cadete and Juvenil levels. In the past, players retained after their Juvenil A spell (aged about 17) would typically move to reserve team CA Osasuna B (Promesas) to gain experience in an adult league (Segunda División B level in most years). However, Promesas is an under-23 team and it can be difficult for the younger players to make an impact. Some other leading clubs in Spain have a further reserve team or an affiliated club in the lower Tercera División level to bridge this gap (see Villarreal CF C/Real Sociedad C/CD Basconia/Sevilla FC C), and in 2016 Osasuna made an agreement with local CD Iruña to fulfil the role. Therefore, in the coming years some of the youth academy graduates will spend 1 or 2 seasons at Iruña before the best players progress to Osasuna Promesas, and therafter on to the senior team when considered ready to do so.
Head coaches
The coaches are often former Osasuna players who themselves graduated from Tajonar.
Juvenil A
As of November 2016Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Juvenil B
As of January 2017Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Superliga / Liga de Honor sub-19
Seasons with two or more trophies shown in bold
División de Honor Juvenil
Seasons with two or more trophies shown in bold