The neighborhood school that beats in Barça's defense

Sant Adrià de BesòsClub Deportivo Sant Gabriel is one of the temples of youth football in our country. It was once a benchmark for women's football in Catalonia, reaching the First Division for five consecutive years between 2010 and 2015. However, in recent years, the club's women's section has gradually been dissolving due to a lack of resources. The men's section, which also enjoyed golden ages and produced great players such as Luis García and Oleguer Presas, is now proud to have produced four players who have started this season with Barça's first team: Alejandro Balde, Gerard Martín, Sergi Domínguez, and Àlex Valle.

The objective of the club, founded in 1960, is clear: "To develop players," says Sant Gabriel president Gregorio Peralta. "Since we don't have a first team, we're very proud that they're moving to big clubs like Barça and making their debut in the First Division," says Xavi Miracle, the club's sporting director. "We're a club that acts as a springboard for players and coaches," he adds. In fact, the Sant Adrià de Besòs club has had a contract with Barça since 1994, allowing the Catalans to secure the services of the most prominent players in the league. Bleeds. Almost every season, one of the club's young players ends up wearing the blue and red jersey.

"We must be clear that the player we send to Barça can end up succeeding in professional football. It's essential that they have a good family environment," explains Peralta. That's why, when he believes a player is at a higher level than the rest and has a favorable environment, he doesn't hesitate to offer them to the Barcelona club. "It's useless to keep them. If someone wants and can go to a bigger team, we should release them," he asserts.

The great ability to develop defenders

"Almost all the players who have come out of here and become professionals are defenders," explains Miracle. So it's no coincidence that the four players who started the season under Hansi Flick with a history at the San Adrianense club are positioned in the defensive line. "Right now, Barça's two left backs – Balde and Gerard Martín – have been trained at home. And if we count Àlex Valle, who is on loan at Como, that makes three," adds the sporting director.

More than fifteen years ago, the president of Sant Gabriel was already aware of Balde's potential: "He was a junior and I offered him to Barça, but they said no. He went to Espanyol and after four months Barça became interested in him and brought him here playing. I'll understand why they didn't." Now that he sees him triumphant in the elite, he's amazed.

Gerard Martín, on the other hand, signed for the Besòs club as a youth player and stayed for four years until he was signed by Cornellà. "He had great potential, he stood out a lot here, but I didn't expect him to make it to the Barça first team. I was really surprised," confesses Peralta. Valle, meanwhile, only stayed at the club for one year, following a different path than Sergi Domínguez, another Barça player who now plays predominantly for the reserve team. Domínguez started in Sant Gabriel's nursery when he was just 5 years old and has now played a few games as a center back for Barça's first team. "I played with Sergi Domínguez's father in futsal, and I saw that Sergi could kick very hard for how small he was, and I insisted that my father take him to Sant Gabriel," recalls the president. "When he was in the U12 A team, he scored three goals against Barça as a center back, and they wanted to sign him the following year," he adds.

Peralta is clear about the key to success since becoming president: "We win through courage. What sets us apart is the club's strength to overcome divisions and make the impossible possible." He also believes that players who train at the José Luis Ruiz Casado Municipal Club—named after a former San Gabriel player who was a victim of ETA—"learn to suffer, and that makes them more intense," he says.

Joan Llandrich, the man who championed women's football in the city

"Everyone knows San Gabriel because of Llandrich," says Miracle. Before the current Liga F went professional, Sant Adrià de Besòs fielded a women's team in the Spanish First Division. This women's football didn't have the popularity it has achieved in recent years, but thanks to Llandrich's commitment to promoting it, it allowed Sant Gabriel to play in the top flight for five years. "Llandrich spent astronomical amounts of money out of its own pocket to maintain the women's team. It paid the players' housing, salaries, transportation, and tuition," emphasizes Peralta.

"There were times when the men's team wore non-brand clothing and the women's team, on the other hand, wore Nike because Llandrich only wanted to provide money for the girls," says the president. But everything changed when Llandrich left, and they were only able to maintain the women's youth team until Levante Les Planes took over "more than 70 girls," according to Miracle.