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The bosses at Villarreal want to make it very clear. There is not one<\/b> <\/b><\/i>“magic” reason behind the academy that produced Ballon d’Or winner Rodri.<\/b><\/p>\n
Villarreal are from a small industrial city of the same name in eastern Spain with a population of 50,000.<\/p>\n
Yet, despite a catchment area about the size of Yeovil, the academy has trained world-renowned stars like Rodri, Nicolas Jackson, Pau Torres and their current Spain winger Alex Baena.<\/p>\n
Over the past 25 years Villarreal’s academy graduates have helped establish the club as perennial overachievers.<\/p>\n
Their first season in the top tier of Spanish football was in 1998-99.<\/p>\n
Since then they have qualified for Europe 19 times, reached the last four of the Champions League on three occasions – in 2006, 2016 and 2022 – and even beat Manchester United in the 2021 Europa League final.<\/a><\/p>\n This season, a rare one without European football, they’re overachieving again.<\/p>\n The club, nicknamed the Yellow Submarines, are fifth<\/a> – battling Athletic Bilbao for La Liga’s best of the rest slot, behind Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona.<\/p>\n But Villarreal chief executive Fernando Roig stressed to BBC Sport no single person at the club “is a magician”.<\/p>\n “We have not hired Ted Lasso to make a big change,” he said.<\/p>\n So how do Villarreal do it then?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n