Real Sociedad Juvenil
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| Full name | Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D. | ||
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| Nickname(s) |
Txuriurdin (White and Blue) Erreala / La Real (The Royals) | ||
| Ground |
Zubieta Facilities, San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain | ||
| Capacity | 2,500 | ||
| President | Jokin Aperribay | ||
| Coach | Jon Mikel Arrieta | ||
| League | División de Honor | ||
| 201516 | División de Honor, Gr. 2, 5th | ||
| Website | Club home page | ||
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Real Sociedad de Fútbol Juvenil A (Basque: Gazteak A) is the under-18 team of Spanish professional football club Real Sociedad based at the club’s training complex at Zubieta. This is the highest category within the internal youth structure before the players who are retained sign professional contracts and normally then move to affiliate or reserve teams.
National competitions
The Juvenil A team play in Group II of the División de Honor Juvenil de Fútbol as their regular annual competition. Their main rivals in the league group are Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna. The under-17 team, Juvenil B or Easo (named after a nickname for San Sebastián which itself derives from the nearby Roman town of Oiasso), plays in the Liga Nacional Juvenil de Fútbol which is the lower division of the same structure.
The team also regularly 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 formidable opposition includes the academy teams of Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla and Real Madrid.
Background and structure
The top football clubs in the Spanish leagues generally place great importance in developing their ‘cantera’ (quarry - youth system) to promote the players from within or sell to other clubs as a source of revenue, and Real Sociedad is no exception. Until the late 1980s, the club operated a Basque-only player recruitment policy but abandoned this in order to remain competitive; however their youth recruitment network is still focused around their home region of Gipuzkoa and there are collaboration agreements in place with the small clubs in the region.
Most of the current senior team players are youth academy graduates (15 of the squad in 2014 [1]). In 2016, Real Sociedad's total of 16 homegrown players (as per UEFA guidelines, 3 years of training between 15 and 21 years old) still at their formative club was the second-highest across Europe's 'big five' leagues, and far more than all other top clubs apart from neighbours Athletic Bilbao. Adding 9 former trainees at other eligible clubs for a sum of 25 ranked as the 5th highest, although only 3rd in Spain behind Real Madrid and FC Barcelona who retained just a few of the many high-level players they produced.[2] In 2013 it was also noted that 22 of the 23 members of the Juvenil A squad that season were from Gipuzkoa.[3]
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Real Sociedad's good standing in La Liga in recent years - including qualifying for the 2013-14 UEFA Champions League - has thus been achieved using a large proportion of homegrown players, with the vast majority of those hailing from the local region (which has a population of just 715,000, a small catchment area for an elite football club, and with that potential pool of talent drained further by frequent swoops for the best youngsters by Athletic Bilbao), indicating a very high standard of coaching and development of the young players at their disposal. A notable exception to this local focus was Antoine Griezmann from France who was integrated into the setup at a young age after his potential was identified by Real staff at an event.
The core of boys from the Gipuzkoa region are first introduced into the Zubieta ‘’Alevín’’ teams at around 10 years of age and advance by an age group every season through Infantil, Cadete and Juvenil levels. The players who are retained by Real after their Juvenil A spell (aged about 17) would typically join Real Sociedad C - a recent addition to the club structure - with that squad normally expanded further with some signings from the regions’s youth clubs such as Antiguoko, a small San Sebastián team who regularly challenge the professional youth teams for the title in their División de Honor group.
The players usually spend one or two seasons at Real C before the best progress to the reserve team Sanse and then on to the senior team when considered ready to do so.
Head coaches
The coaches[4] are often former Real players who themselves graduated from Zubieta. The director of the academy is another former player, Roberto Olabe - his son (also Roberto) is a Real Sociedad academy graduate, as is Loren Juarros, the club's director of football.[5]
| Squad | Age | Coach | Tier | League |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juvenil A | 16-18 | Jon Mikel Arrieta | 1 | División de Honor (Gr. II) |
| Easo | 16-17 | Unai Gazpio | 2 | Liga Nacional (Gr. IV) |
| Cadete A | 15-16 | Iñaki Satrustegi | 1 | Cadete Liga Vasca |
| Cadete Txiki | 14-15 | Gorka Valle | 2 | Cadete División de Honor |
International tournaments
In 2012–13 Real Sociedad's senior team qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stages, meaning that the Juvenil squad could play in the 2013–14 version of the UEFA Youth League. They finished top of their group in the competition but were eliminated from the knockout stage by Schalke 04.
In the subsequent years there has been no further chance to participate due to the senior team failing to qualify. The alternative route into the Youth League would be to win the previous season’s Copa de Campeones but Real Juvenil have so far been unable to achieve this.
Current squad
- As of November 2016 [6]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Honours
- División de Honor (Group II): (regional league)
- Copa de Campeones:
- Winners:1998, 1999
- Runners-up: 2014
- Copa del Rey:
See also
- Real Sociedad senior team
- Real Sociedad B, ‘Sanse’ 1st reserve team
- Real Sociedad C 2nd reserve team
References
- ↑ "Barcelona top list for most homegrown players in major European Leagues". Inside Spanish Football.
- ↑ "Revealed! Which clubs produce the most of Europe's top players? (November 2016)". FourFourTwo.
- ↑ "Only one in the squad is not from Gipuzkoa (Diario Vasco, 2013)" (in Spanish).
- ↑ "Real Sociedad makes small adjustments in the technical organization of the quarry (Diario Vasco, 2016)" (in Spanish).
- ↑ "Roberto Olabe signs for Atleti B (Mundo Deportivo, 2016)" (in Spanish).
- ↑ "Real Sociedad website: Juvenil A squad 16/17" (in Spanish).