Barcelona

Many of you may know Barcelona’s formula of success: It runs its own football school for kids and trains up its own players.

And the achievement is exemplary: Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Messi, you name it. They were brought up together. They are good friends ever since they were kids. They form a cohesive team.

You may argue that’s a strategy of in-breeding, and Spain may not come up with a sufficient number of good player to support the Club. (This concern is particularly relevant for Barcelona. Most of the kids recruited for its football school come from Catalonia – a small part of Spain with a population of 7.5 million.) That may be true. On the other hand, all the heroes in the Three Kingdoms Period came from a population of 8 million, and Li Shimin (李世民) chose all his remarkable ministers from a population of 12 million. The size of the selection pool may not be a problem as long as capable people are properly selected and nurtured.

PS. Our discussion illustrates indirectly another classical psychological trap: When we are making a choice, we tend to screen through as many options as possible because it seems more likely to find the best one. In reality, it is often a waste of energy, and, more often than not, we forget what we are looking for after being shown with too many alternatives. Moreover, in the scenario of training football players, we tend to neglect the importance of cultivating and taking care of the one being chosen, which are, after all, the most important steps to build a successful team.