CA Osasuna Cantera

The cantera (''quarry'') of Spanish professional football club CA Osasuna is the organisation's youth academy, developing players from childhood through to the integration of the best prospects into the adult teams.

The final category within the youth structure is the ''Juvenil A'' ( eu, Gazteak A) under-18/19 team which represents the club in national competition. The successful graduates then usually move to the club's affiliated team for younger players, CD Subiza (previously CD Iruña), or to the reserve team, Osasuna B which are also considered part of the cantera due to being stages in progression towards the senior team, albeit competing in the adult league system.

The academy is based at the club training complex, Tajonar, which is often the name used informally to refer to the system itself.

Background

The top football clubs in the Spanish leagues generally place great importance in developing their ''cantera'' to promote the players from within or sell to other clubs as a source of revenue, and Osasuna is no exception. Their youth recruitment network is focused primarily around their home region of Navarre and there are collaboration agreements in place with the small clubs in the region.

Navarre has a population of just 640,000, a small catchment zone for an elite football club, and additionally Osasuna faces a battle for some of the region's talented young players due to the presence of Athletic Bilbao, whose Basque-only player recruitment policy includes Navarre in its definition. In the 1990s and 2000s, several prominent players made the journey directly from Pamplona to Bilbao, including Ziganda, Larrainzar, Lacruz, Tiko, Orbaiz, Javi Martínez, David López and Muñoz, while others such as Goikoetxea, José Mari and Ezquerro moved from Osasuna to Athletic via other clubs. The Biscay organisation have an affiliate team ( UDC Txantrea) in Pamplona, and several promising players who might otherwise have been likely to join Osasuna, the closest major club to their home towns (such as Iraizoz, Gurpegui, Llorente, San José and Muniain) were recruited by Athletic instead. This situation of increasingly aggressive recruitment fostered a tense relationship between the two clubs, arguably more so than any on-field battles.

After a spell in the late 2000s during which Osasuna had few new academy graduates joining their main squad while Athletic reached a European final with a team full of ''Navarros'', the trend reversed: Osasuna's relegation from La Liga in 2014 provided an opportunity for several academy players to integrate into the side in the less intense atmosphere of the second tier, and they played a role in the club's return to the top level in 2016. Meanwhile, Athletic recruited hardly any further youth players from Navarre in the same period, although the likes of Williams and Remiro were already at the Bilbao club. In the late 2010s, Villarreal also began to make repeated 'raids' on Osasuna, enticing several young teenagers to join their setup, as did Barcelona.

According to a 2016 report, Osasuna had a total of 11 ''homegrown players'' (as per UEFA guidelines, three years of training between 15 and 21 years old) still at their formative club, with another five at other top clubs across Europe. As a club from a small city with limited resources, the youth department's ability to train such coveted players (as well as provide others to the senior squad) is a vital source of income. The departures of four of the former youth players, all of whom became Spanish internationals – Raúl García, Monreal, Javi Martínez and Azpilicueta – earned Osasuna €31 million in transfer fees; the fifth and last of those departures, under-21 midfielder Mikel Merino, brought in a further €4 million.

In the summer of 2017, Álex Berenguer became the latest ''canterano'' to move abroad for a considerable fee (€5.5 million), an important financial boost in the wake of another relegation. Athletic Bilbao had been interested in Berenguer, but no deal was agreed due in part to the rivalry between the clubs. At the same time, Athletic secured the signature of 18-year-old Jesús Areso from Osasuna's youth team, paying his modest contractual release clause amount, making it impossible for the Pamplona club to reject the approach; this led to Osasuna temporarily breaking relations with their Bilbao neighbours in annoyance due to the impolite manner in which their board felt the business was conducted. Athletic eventually signed Berenguer three years later, triggering an additional €1.5 million payment from Torino to Osasuna, set up to hinder their advances of the Areso dispute at the height. A further small fee was also received in relation to milestones achieved by Oihan Sancet who moved to Bilbao in 2015 as a juvenile under freedom of contract. In a rare move in the opposite direction, Areso was welcomed back to Osasuna in the summer of 2021, still looked upon as a good prospect but never used by Athletic's first team and also frozen out in the reserve squad after he and the club failed to agree contractual terms.

Another analysis in 2016 concluded that the Navarre region was the most successful in Spain for producing top-level footballers per head of population (25 players, equating to 39 per million residents) thanks to the efforts of both Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao in recruiting and developing local talent.

National Competitions

The ''Juvenil A'' team play in Group II of the División de Honor Juvenil as their regular annual competition. Their main rivals in the league group are Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad. The under-17 team, ''Juvenil B'', plays in the Liga Nacional Juvenil which is the lower division of the same structure.

The team also occasionally 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 opposition includes the academy teams of Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Sevilla and Real Madrid.

International Tournaments

It is possible for Osasuna Juvenil to participate in the UEFA Youth League, either by winning the previous season's Copa de Campeones or by way of the senior team qualifying for the UEFA Champions League group stages, but so far neither has been achieved.

Structure

The core of boys from the Navarre region are first introduced into the Tajonar ''Futbol 8'' teams at around 10 years of age and advance by an age group every season through ''Infantil'', ''Cadete'' and ''Juvenil'' levels. In the past, players retained after their ''Juvenil A'' spell (aged about 17) would typically move to reserve team CA Osasuna B (''Promesas'') to gain experience in an adult league ( Segunda División B level in most years). However, Promesas is an under-23 team and it can be difficult for the youngest players to make an impact. Some other leading clubs in Spain have a further reserve team or an affiliated club in the lower Tercera División level to bridge this gap (see Villarreal CF C/ Real Sociedad C/ CD Basconia/Sevilla FC C), and in 2016 Osasuna made an agreement with local CD Iruña to fulfil the role. The aim was for some of the youth academy graduates to spend one or two seasons at Iruña before the best progressed to Osasuna Promesas, and thereafter on to the senior team when ready to do so. In practice, the relegation of Promesas in 2017–18 forced Iruña (whose team had included Jon Moncayola that season) to drop into the Navarre regional leagues, below the level considered beneficial for the development of the youth graduates. In 2020, a new agreement was reached with CD Subiza for this purpose.

Head coaches

The coaches are often former Osasuna players who themselves graduated from Tajonar.

Current squad (Juvenil A)

Season to season (Juvenil A)

'' Superliga / Liga de Honor sub-19''

Seasons with two or more trophies shown in boldHistorical Spanish Juvenile Competition Results
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'' División de Honor Juvenil''

Seasons with two or more trophies shown in bold

Famous players

Notable graduates who passed through the youth system on their way to establishing themselves with the Osasuna senior side and/or other clubs include:

''players currently at Osasuna in bold, 'graduation' year in parentheses''

* Enrique Martín (1975)
* Roberto Santamaría Calavia (1981)
*José Ángel Ziganda (1985)
* Ion Andoni Goikoetxea (1985)
* Txomin Larrainzar (1988)
*Iñigo Larrainzar (1989)
* José Mari (1989)
* Santi Castillejo (1990)
* César Cruchaga (1992)
* Javier López Vallejo (1992)
* Txomin Nagore (1993)
* César Palacios (1993)
* José Manuel Mateo (1994)
* Santiago Ezquerro (1994)
* Marí Lacruz (1994)
* Chema (1994)
* Patxi Puñal (1994)
*Tiko (1995)
* Josetxo (1995)
*Pablo Orbaiz (1996)

*Iñaki Muñoz (1997)
* Juan Elía (1997)
* José Izquierdo (1998)
* David López (2001)
* Javier Flaño (2001)
* Miguel Flaño (2001)
* Iñaki Astiz (2002)
* Raúl García (2004)
* Oier (2005)
*Javi Martínez (2005)
*César Azpilicueta (2006)
* Roberto Torres (2007)
* Unai García (2011)
* David García (2013)
* Miguel Olavide (2013)
*Mikel Merino (2014)
*Álex Berenguer (2014)
*Kike Barja (2014)
*Aitor Buñuel (2016)
* Jon Moncayola (2017)

Honours

National competitions

* División de Honor (Group II): (regional league)
**0 (''Liga Nacional Juvenil'' 1975-86)
**3 2001, 2005, 2017 ( current format since 1995)
* Copa de Campeones:
**0 (runners-up 1989) (''Superliga Juvenil / Liga de Honor Sub-19'', single league, 1986–95)
**1 2001 (current format since 1995)
* Copa del Rey: (since 1951)
** winners 0 times
** runners-up 1 time 2004

See also

* CA Osasuna senior team
* Osasuna B ‘Promesas’ - reserve team
* CD Iruña – affiliated club

References

{{CA Osasuna

Cantera
Osasuna
Osasuna