Boca Juniors is the most winning Torneo de Reserva championships with 21 titles won since the squad was established in 1910.[3] Boca Juniors reserve team plays in the "Primera División de Reserva", the reserve division of Primera División. Home matches are played at Complejo "Pedro Pompilio", sited in La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
The Academy
"Complejo Pedro Pompilio", current venue of Boca Juniors reserve teams
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.[4] The second was Ramón Maddoni,[5] 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.[6][7]
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.[8][9]
Scouting
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
Reserves
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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