The invisible gasoline of Barça players
The Barça club uses creatine in both its training and professional teams
Barcelona"Success is never accidental." This is one of the mottos of Barça's medical services, which have made creatine the invisible fuel for a club always attentive to the latest medical innovations. The blaugrana entity uses this supplement in both its youth and professional teams.
The Barça Innovation Hub has compiled different studies that highlight the benefits of creatine, which has become a strategic tool in high performance. "In a context where players cover more ground, perform more sprints, and compete at increasing intensities season after season, any intervention capable of improving the ability to sustain repeated high-intensity efforts, accelerate phosphocreatine resynthesis, and maintain power output directly impacts a footballer's performance and availability," assures the Catalan club. The latest specialized publications position creatine as a nutrient with implications for brain health and cognitive function, adding an extra dimension in sports where quick decision-making and mental fatigue are determining factors.
Barça has a collaboration agreement with BioTechUSA. “When their proposal arrived, I put on my Sherlock Holmes hat. I analyzed their entire product portfolio, formulations, quality control system, and met their professional team. What convinced me was their total transparency and the possibility of working on a personalized basis for the benefit of our players," says Mireia Porta, head of nutrition for FC Barcelona's medical services.
Studies highlight the role of creatine monohydrate in improving performance, recovery, and mental acuity. From a physiological point of view, creatine acts as an energy buffer for the phosphagen system, increases phosphocreatine stores, accelerates ATP resynthesis, and improves both peak power and the ability to repeat high-intensity efforts with incomplete rest periods.
Around 70% of studies describe improvements in some component of performance, especially when combined with structured strength and high-intensity programs. On this basis, elite clubs like Barça have incorporated specific creatine protocols not only to enhance explosive performance, but also to modulate load, accelerate recovery between sessions, and promote processes such as glycogen replenishment, protection against muscle damage, and support for cognitive functions under fatigue. “Performance begins with health. Without health, there is no performance. Our job is to ensure our players are in the best possible conditions: physical, mental, and emotional," recalls Porta.
Strict Barça protocol
According to information published by Barça in January 2026, the culer protocol is characterized by a fixed daily dose of 5 grams of creatine monohydrate. The blaugrana club individualizes each athlete according to the match schedule, training loads, and their physical condition. Creatine is taken on both training and match days, and even on rest days. The preferred time is after training, along with recovery nutrition. The blaugrana entity carries out rigorous quality control with more than 200,000 internal annual analyses and external certifications from accredited laboratories.
The most widespread concern among athletes and coaches revolves around the possible adverse effects of creatine on kidney function. In fact, Darryn Peterson, one of the promises of the North American basketball world, was admitted a few days ago for excessive creatine consumption. However, specialized studies confirm that supplementation is safe and well-tolerated, as long as the process is supervised by specialists.
