Coach, Juande Ramos selected a starting-11 for #BarçaMálaga that included Mikel, Ontiveros, Pablo and Juanpi. In the second half, En-Nesyri and Luis joined play, the latter making his LaLiga debut with MCF. That’s a total of six footballers, who trained in the Club’s youth categories. The average age of the starting line-up, in which just Kameni and Miguel Torres are in their 30s, was 24 years.
Coincidentally, the six aforementioned players are internationals, and regularly appear in line-ups with their respective countries. Mikel and Juanpi, as well as En-Nesyri, are regulars in Venezuela and Morocco’s first teams. Pablo debuted last season with Spain and in the under-21s, whilst Javi Ontiveros and Luis Muñoz were chosen for the youth ranks of ‘La Roja’.
We have to look back to the 2009/10 season, when the highest number of homegrown players (9) took part in a League match with MCF, in relation to the last match at Camp Nou. It was the 30th First Division match of the season, a Zaragoza-Málaga (2-0) played at La Romareda. The then coach, Juan Ramón Muñiz, selected seven players from the previously named ‘La Base’ for the line-up: Málaga-born; Gámez, Iván González, Manu Torres, Apoño, Juanito and Fernando; plus Toribio from Gerona. In the second half, two members of the youth ranks born in Málaga, Juanmi and Edu Ramos, also joined the game.
