Before the academy: potrero, baby fútbol, futsal, várzea
The big South American clubs take children in at nine, ten, eleven. What those children have done up to that point differs fundamentally from Europe.
Argentina: potrero and baby fútbol
The potrero is the uneven patch of waste ground where Argentinian children play football — without a coach, without lines, without age groups. The word has become a symbol for a form of development that is not one: children learn because they play, against older boys, with a bad ball, on bad ground. Diego Maradona, Carlos Tevez and Juan Román Riquelme have all described the potrero as their school.
Alongside it there is baby fútbol: organised leagues for children between roughly five and thirteen, mostly in neighbourhood clubs, on small pitches, often indoors or on concrete, with five to seven players a side. Messi played baby fútbol at Grandoli in Rosario before joining Newell's. The format resembles futsal: tight spaces, many touches, constant duels, a fast ball.
The combination — unstructured potrero and small-sided baby fútbol — means an Argentinian child of ten has thousands of hours more contact with the ball than a German child who has trained at a club since the age of seven. And that it spent those hours without instruction.
Brazil: futsal and várzea
In Brazil it is futsal. The game is widespread in schools and clubs across the country, and nearly every Brazilian professional of the last thirty years played it as a child: Ronaldinho, Neymar, Vinícius Júnior, Philippe Coutinho. Futsal coaches in Brazil are educators in the narrow sense — they teach technique, feints, ball control under pressure. The move to the outdoor game usually happens between ten and twelve.
Then there is the várzea, the Brazilian counterpart to the potrero: amateur and street football in the suburbs, on sand, earth and concrete. Less romantic than the myth, but real: the density of informal football in Brazilian cities is higher than anywhere in Europe.
What that means
South American academies receive, at the age of ten, children who are already footballers. The academy does not have to teach them how to take a ball under pressure. It has to teach them how to play in a team. That is a different task from a European academy's, which takes children in at eight and has to teach them both.
That is why the question "how do Boca and River train?" is partly the wrong question. The answer to "where does it come from?" is, in large part: not from training.
The structure: Inferiores and Base
Argentina
Argentinian clubs organise their youth in Inferiores, by year group from the Novena (around U13) to the Cuarta (around U20), with the Reserva above them. All play in leagues run by the federation AFA against the Inferiores of the other clubs. The competition is hard, public and result-oriented. A Boca-River match in the Séptima is watched by hundreds of spectators and discussed in the media.
The big clubs run a pensión, a boarding house for players from the interior. Argentina is large, the talents are spread across the whole country, and the road to Buenos Aires is a migration for a twelve-year-old. Julián Álvarez came at eleven from Calchín, a village of around 3,000 people in the province of Córdoba, and grew up in River Plate's pensión. The pensión is part of club identity and one reason the bond between players and club is stronger in Argentina than in Europe.
The step into the first team happens early. Argentinian clubs are under economic pressure and play talents in at 17 or 18 because they have to sell them. That is necessity, but it is also what Benfica recreates with its B team: men's football for 18-year-olds.
Brazil
Brazilian clubs speak of the base — the categories Sub-11 to Sub-20. The most important showcase is the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, the Copinha, a January tournament for U20 teams that is broadcast nationwide and regularly washes players into first teams and to Europe. Alongside it the U20 championship, the U17 championship and, since 2011, the U20 Libertadores.
Access is more open than in Argentina. Peneiras — open trial days attended by hundreds of children — are normal in Brazil. Alongside them, scouts, intermediaries and a network of agents that works earlier and more aggressively than in Europe. A Brazilian talent often has a representative at 14.
Sales to Europe happen at 16, when the first professional contract is signed. The move itself happens at 18, because FIFA rules forbid international transfers of minors. Vinícius Júnior was sold to Real Madrid in 2017 at 16 and moved in 2018. Endrick to Real Madrid in 2022, moving in 2024. Estêvão to Chelsea in 2024, moving in 2025.
River Plate: La Máquina and the pensión
River Plate is the club of Argentinian elegance. The nickname goes back to the team of the 1940s — La Máquina — and is cultivated as an identity to this day: technical, combination-based football, players with class on the ball.
The youth train in Ezeiza, south of Buenos Aires, at the River Camp, where the first team also works. The pensión is part of the complex.
Graduates: Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola, Ariel Ortega, Hernán Crespo, Esteban Cambiasso, Gonzalo Higuaín, Radamel Falcao — who arrived at 15 from Colombia — Erik Lamela, Julián Álvarez, Enzo Fernández, Exequiel Palacios, Gonzalo Montiel, Claudio Echeverri, Franco Mastantuono, who moved to Real Madrid in 2025 at 18.
What River does differently:
Scouting across the whole country. River has a network of observers in every province and brings children to Ezeiza at ten or eleven. The pensión makes that possible. Álvarez, Fernández and Palacios all came from the interior.
The playing idea as a filter. River looks for players who fit La Máquina: technical, clever, intelligent in the game. A player who is only quick or only robust has a harder time at River than at Boca.
The Gallardo era as a model of permeability. Marcelo Gallardo coached River from 2014 to 2022, won two Libertadores — 2015 and 2018, the latter in the final against Boca in Madrid — and consistently built in home-grown players. Álvarez, Fernández, Palacios and Montiel became regulars under him and later world champions.
Boca Juniors: Casa Amarilla and the pressure
Boca Juniors is the counterpart. The club from the harbour district of La Boca stands for garra — fight, will, resistance. The Bombonera is the loudest stadium in South America, and the pressure that rests on players there shapes the development.
The youth train at Casa Amarilla, right next to the stadium; the first team in Ezeiza. The physical separation is a disadvantage Boca is aware of.
Graduates: Carlos Tevez, Fernando Gago, Éver Banega, Nicolás Gaitán, Leandro Paredes, Cristian Medina, Exequiel Zeballos, Valentín Barco, who moved to Brighton in 2024, Aaron Anselmino, sold to Chelsea in 2024. Riquelme arrived at 17 from Argentinos Juniors — a borderline case, but the player who shaped Boca's identity more than any other.
What Boca does differently:
Competition as development. Boca's Inferiores play to win. The club sees the pressure of the Bombonera as something children have to be prepared for — and does that by putting them under pressure early. That is the opposite of the Ajax principle and similar to Benfica's.
Riquelme as president. Juan Román Riquelme, himself the greatest idol in the club's history, became president in 2023 and declared the youth a priority. Young players were brought in more often and earlier. The first team's results in that period fell short of expectations — an example of how hard youth development and titles sit together at a club with Boca's demands.
Mentality before system. Boca graduates stand out less for a shared playing idea than for a shared attitude. Tevez and Paredes have little in common except a willingness to take responsibility under pressure. That is what Boca develops.
Flamengo: Ninho do Urubu
Flamengo is the club with the most supporters in Brazil and, since around 2019, the financially strongest. The club won the Libertadores in 2019, 2022 and 2025 — the last with a 1-0 against Palmeiras in Lima — and is thereby the first Brazilian club with four titles.
The youth train at the Ninho do Urubu in the west of Rio de Janeiro, where the first team also works. In 2019 ten youth players died there in a fire in the accommodation. The disaster deeply marked the club and the debate about housing young players in Brazil.
Graduates: Zico, Júnior, Adriano, Vinícius Júnior, Lucas Paquetá, Reinier, Matheus França, João Gomes, Wesley, Lorran. Vinícius is the best-known case: sold at 16 to Real Madrid for around 45 million euros, today one of the best players in the world.
What Flamengo does differently:
Financial strength as a retention tool. Unlike most South American clubs, Flamengo can keep players and at least approach European wages. The squad of the 2025 Libertadores winners contained returnees from Europe — Jorginho, Alex Sandro, Danilo — alongside home-grown players. The model is a mixture of development and buying that is new in South America.
The coach from the youth. Filipe Luís, a former international, coached Flamengo's U17 and U20 from 2023, took over the first team in 2024 and won the Libertadores in 2025. The path from youth coach to head coach within the same club is the one Marco Rose took at Salzburg and Bruno Lage at Benfica — and one that was rare in Brazil.
Investment in the base. Since 2025, under president Luiz Eduardo Baptista, Flamengo has restructured its youth department and is trying to close the gap to Palmeiras. The club won the U20 Libertadores in 2024 and 2025.
Palmeiras: the most productive academy in South America
In the 2020s Palmeiras has become the dominant academy in South America. The figures Brazilian media reported in January 2026: since 2020, 51 players from the club's own youth have debuted in the first team. Over that period the club has taken in more than 1.5 billion reais — around 250 million euros — from selling home-grown players. The biggest sales: Estêvão to Chelsea for up to 61.5 million euros including bonuses, Endrick to Real Madrid for up to 60 million, Vitor Reis to Manchester City for around 37 million — the highest sum ever paid for a Brazilian defender from a Brazilian club.
The architect is João Paulo Sampaio, coordinator of the base since 2015. Under him the club tripled the number of youth coaches and extended scouting to practically the whole country. Palmeiras won the Copinha in 2022 and 2023 and the U20 Libertadores in 2022.
What Palmeiras does differently:
Development as core business. Sampaio has said it openly in interviews: the goal was to make Palmeiras one of the five best academies in the world, and the measure of that is sale proceeds and debuts. By its own account the club has invested around 200 million reais in the base and taken almost a billion out. That is Benfica's model with a Brazilian talent pool.
Permeability under Abel Ferreira. The Portuguese coach, in office since 2020, won the Libertadores in 2020 and 2021 and consistently built in home-grown players: Endrick, Luis Guilherme, Estêvão, Vitor Reis, Allan. That a Portuguese coach with a Portuguese development philosophy leads the most productive phase of the Palmeiras base is no accident. The connection between Portuguese and Brazilian football is closer than ever.
Early binding, late release. Palmeiras ties talents to professional contracts at 16 with high release clauses and negotiates from a position of strength. By its own account the club turned down offers of 30, 35 and 40 million for Estêvão when he was 15, and sold him a year later for 45 million plus bonuses.
Structure instead of myth. Palmeiras' success is the least romantic story in this article. No potrero legend, no street-football narrative. A coordinator, tripled coaching posts, a nationwide scouting network, a clear sales strategy. It is the European model in Brazil — and it works.
The criticism
The myth hides the loss. Potrero and várzea are real, but they are disappearing. Argentinian and Brazilian cities are losing open space, children spend more time indoors, informal football is declining. The academies notice and are beginning to rebuild what used to happen by itself — with futsal programmes and small-sided formats. Whether that works is open.
The export bleeds the leagues. South American clubs sell their best players at 16 to 19. The leagues are weaker in sporting terms than they could be. Flamengo and Palmeiras can partly cushion that with financial strength, Boca and River cannot.
The agent market. In Brazil the influence of intermediaries on 14-year-olds is a problem the federation barely controls. Clubs, agents and families negotiate over children. That is the flip side of an open market.
Result pressure in the youth game. Argentinian Inferiores play for results, in front of a crowd, with media coverage. That produces players who can take pressure. It also burns out players who cannot yet take it at 14.
The safety of the children. The fire at the Ninho do Urubu in 2019 showed that accommodation for young players in South America does not everywhere meet the standards taken for granted in Europe. That is not a methodological question, but it belongs in an honest description.
Little published methodology. As with most academies in this series there is no curriculum. What transfers are principles and structures, not exercises.
Application: what you can take from it
This section is our interpretation.
South America's lesson is the most uncomfortable in this series, because it says the most important part happens before training. But it does transfer.
Create potrero time
Free play without a coach is not lost training time — the same logic as in letting children play. It is the most valuable. Twenty minutes at the start of every session in the children's and youth age groups: balls out, goals down, play. You do not intervene. You do not count. You do not correct. That is the potrero your players no longer have.
Futsal in winter, small pitches in summer
The Brazilian lesson: tight spaces force technique. In winter, futsal instead of indoor football with boards. Outdoors, 3v3 and 4v4 on small pitches with small goals. Not as a warm-up but as the core of the session up to U11.
Let older play against younger
The potrero mixes age groups. A ten-year-old playing against thirteen-year-olds learns to protect the ball under pressure, because otherwise he has no ball. Once a week a mixed game across two year groups brings more than any duelling drill.
Dose pressure, do not avoid it
The Argentinian lesson, in moderation: players need situations where something is at stake. A training tournament with a table, a penalty shoot-out in front of the whole squad, a game in which the losers clear away the goals. Not every week. But regularly.
Learn from Palmeiras: structure beats myth
For anyone with responsibility at a club: Palmeiras tripled the number of youth coaches and built a scouting network. That is not South American magic, that is investment in people. An amateur club cannot triple its coaches, but it can make sure every team has two.
The pensión as an idea
River and Boca bind players through belonging. A child who grows up in a club leaves it less easily. For amateur clubs that means: the club is more than training. Celebrations, trips, watching the first team together. That costs nothing and keeps players longer than any exercise could.
What to take away
- South American academies take in ten-year-olds who are already footballers — shaped by potrero, baby fútbol, futsal and várzea. The question "where does it come from?" has an answer that lies largely before training.
- Argentinian Inferiores are result-oriented and public. The pensión binds players from the whole country. The step into the first team happens early, out of necessity and with effect.
- River develops for La Máquina, Boca for the Bombonera. Two identities, two types of player.
- Flamengo combines development with financial strength and won the 2025 Libertadores with Filipe Luís, its own youth coach.
- Palmeiras is the most productive academy in South America — not through myth but through structure: tripled coaching posts, nationwide scouting, a clear sales strategy.
- Informal football is disappearing, the export bleeds the leagues, the agent market is a problem.
- Transferable: free play without a coach, futsal and small pitches, mixed age groups, dosed pressure, investment in coaches, belonging as a bond.
The most important exercise in this series is not one: balls out, goals down, twenty minutes of silence. Coach OS helps you plan the other 70.
FAQ: frequently asked questions
Sources and further reading
- Jonathan Wilson: Angels with Dirty Faces: The Footballing History of Argentina — on the potrero, the pibe myth and Argentinian development culture.
- Alex Bellos: Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life — on várzea, futsal and Brazilian football culture.
- Reports in Brazilian sports media (Lance, Goal Brasil, ESPN Brasil, CNN Brasil) on the Palmeiras base, João Paulo Sampaio and the sale proceeds 2024–2026.
- CONMEBOL: reports on the 2025 Copa Libertadores and the U20 Libertadores.
- Interviews with Marcelo Gallardo on integrating young players at River Plate 2014–2022.
- Interviews with Filipe Luís on the path from youth coach to head coach at Flamengo.
A note on the evidence: the Palmeiras figures come from Brazilian media reports between January and August 2026 and rest in part on club statements. Transfer fees including bonuses vary by source; base amounts are lower. The description of training in the academies rests on consistent statements from around the clubs, not on published curricula.