Boca Juniors Reserves and Academy are the reserve and youth academy teams of Boca Juniors. Boca Juniors reserve team plays in the "Primera División de Reserva", the reserve division of Primera División. Home matches are played at the "Boca Juniors Training Center", inaugurated in 2017 and sited in Ezeiza, Buenos Aires. The Boca Juniors reserves are the team with the most Torneo de Reserva championships with 20 titles,[2] since the squad was established in 1910.[3]
According to the International Centre for Sports Studies, Boca Juniors is the club which trained the largest number of professional players worldwide, having trained 78 footballers. The statistic took 285 clubs from 15 different leagues.[4]
Known as "The Boca Factory", Boca Juniors youth divisions contains teams from under-8 to under-20 level. They participate in Argentina's youth leagues organized by the Argentine Football Association. In 1996 Mauricio Macri (who had been elected president of the club one year later) stated that rather than buy players for huge money only to put too much expectation on them and watch them under-perform, they wanted to create their own stars. Therefore, Boca hired two very influential figures; one was Bernardo Griffa, a leading expert of youth in Argentina who had created a successful scouting network at Newell's Old Boys.[5] The second was Ramón Maddoni,[6] the king of 'baby football' (indoor six-a-side football for 5–12 year olds), who had a long career at Club Parque at the moment of being hired by Boca Juniors.[7][8]
Since then, Boca's academy has brought through, and also sold, more than 350 homegrown players from all age categories. From the list of the 350 players, more than 130 of the academy graduates would play around the world, including in Argentina, Spain, Italy, England and many others in places ranging from Germany and the Netherlands to China and Israel. More than 35 leagues contain players that were raised and developed by the Boca academy system. The players are taught the same formation (4–3–1–2) from early on to the first-team. This makes fitting into the first-team far easier for a young player. Boca's under-20 team were regular participants in the Under-20 Copa Libertadores and other international youth football tournaments.[9][10]
The scouting system is comprehensive. There is a Boca Juniors scout in every small town and close to every village. Nearly all are ordinary people, such as teachers, butchers or policemen, and the head of the youth system, Jorge Griffa, regularly travel around Argentina when he took over and listened to the watching crowd, hiring the most appropriate as a scout for the area.
Players
Current squad
As of 1 August 2024
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Fltr: Marcelo Trobbiani, Alberto Tarantini, Omar Larrosa, Oscar Ruggeri, and Leandro Paredes, Boca Juniors' players that were World Cup winners with Argentina
Boca Juniors reserves' main venue is the "Boca Juniors Training Center" (popularly known as "Boca Predio"), a sports complex in the city of Ezeiza, Buenos Aires that was inaugurated in 2017 under the presidence of Daniel Angelici. The complex was built on a land conceded by the Municipality of Ezeiza for sports activities exclusively and with an expiration time of 30 years (that may be renewed for a further 10 years). The club spent AR$60 million on works.[18]
The 60 hectares complex has 12 football fields, locker rooms, gymnasium, kitchen, and other facilities.[19]
Pedro Pompilio Complex
Pedro Pompilio complex, second venue of Boca Juniors reserve teams
Named after former vicepresident of the club, the complex is the second venue of Boca Juniors academies. It is located on Casa Amarilla lands in La Boca. The venue is also used by the women's football and basketball teams.
La Candela
The historic complex for the Boca Juniors academy, La Candela was acquired by the club in 1963 for mn$13 million, being operative until 1991.[20] The 4 hectares complex located in San Justo, Buenos Aires, had been acquired during the presidency of Alberto J. Armando. The first squad of the club also trained at La Candela, which entered into disuse under the presidency of Mauricio Macri, when the reserves teams moved their training sessions to Parque Presidente Sarmiento in Saavedra, Buenos Aires.[21] The complex was finally sold in 2005 to the "Centro de Entrenamiento para Futbolistas de Alto Rendimiento" (CEFAR) for US$350,000.[20][22] Nevertheless, Boca Juniors reacquired the complex at a cost of US$12 million in 2011.[21]
Boca Juniors used the complex until December 2016, when the club moved all the reserves' infrastructure to the new Boca Predio in Ezeiza.[23]
