Manchester City open £200m training academy so special Lionel Messi was left open-mouthed

The Premier League champions open the City Football Academy (CFA), arguably the best training facility in world football, on Monday

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When even Lionel Messi is left open-mouthed in amazement, you know you have created something special.
Messi, four-time Ballon d'Or winner and arguably the greatest player on the planet, was blown away the moment he set eyes on Manchester City's stunning new £200million training complex.
The Barcelona star trained at the City Football Academy (CFA) with the Argentina squad ahead of their recent friendly with Portugal at Old Trafford and could not believe what he saw.
City officially open their new training facility today, with defender Pablo Zabaleta revealing Argentina team-mate Messi was amazed at the scope and scale of the development adjacent to the Etihad Stadium.
“We came here with the Argentina national team last time when we played against Portugal and the players were very impressed with it,” said Zabaleta.

“We gave Messi a tour just to try to impress him. No, I'm joking!

“But everyone was impressed. When you come here and see the buildings and stuff it is fantastic.
“They also have a good training ground in Barcelona, with great facilities. Messi has been there for a long time, and even if he was impressed by this.
“We also went to Carrington - our old training ground - and there is a big difference between the two, which we were talking about it.”
Zabaleta may have joked he used the new training complex to try to convince Messi to join City, but there is a genuine belief at the club that their remarkable new facility could play a major part in players deciding to join them.
“A new player can be impressed or feel comfortable that they are coming to a big club that will look after them,” said Zabaleta. “They have everything here to be a good professional and we can't ask for more – we have everything here.
“It makes a massive difference. City have become a top club, not just in England but in the world, and you need this new facility, a good training ground.
“City sign top players and top players want to train in a good facility. If you want to sign top players to improve our squad, they will come from top teams in Europe probably, and they need to see we are one of the top clubs in the world – this facility makes it special.”
PICTURES: See inside £200million state-of-the-art facility

The CFA is indeed special, arguably the most sophisticated and high-tech training ground in world football, where the facilities simply have to be seen to be believed.
Manchester United recently spent £25m revamping their Carrington training complex with the addition of a state-of-the-art medical centre and sports science department, but the CFA has taken the concept of a training complex to an unprecedented new level.
City went through 19 different design versions before settling on the final one, and looked at more than 70 different sporting facilities in Europe, USA and Australia for inspiration.
There are a total of 16 outdoor pitches, including the main Academy Stadium pitch, a protected first-team pitch for set-piece work and 14 other playing surfaces, plus two half-pitches for goalkeeper training.
Such is the attention to detail there are three different grass surfaces in operation – Desso, RouteZone and GrassMaster [more sand-based], on which training can be alternated to suit the surfaces of different opponents.
In the building in which City's first-team are housed, there are three gyms, each focusing on a different area – strength and conditioning, pilates and technical skills.
There is an utra-sound room, several physio and massage rooms, as well as a hydrotherapy area that includes six different pools.

There is a cold plunge pool at just four degrees, a hot plunge pool at 36 degrees, a resistance pool in which players can walk against a current to aid their recovery from injury, as well as a three-lane main swimming pool, which also contains water pressure jets to aid player recovery.
Adjacent to the pool area is the first-team changing room, a circular design to avoid cliques, where every player has their name above their seat and personal locker.
City's players were consulted on the design of the changing-room and said they wanted it to be circular because it made the entire area a more inclusive environment.
Above the changing-room is the players’ lounge, a kind of elite youth club, with designer chairs, sofas, dozens of giant flat-screen TVs everywhere you look – which is the case throughout the entire complex - as well as computer terminals for the players, a pool table and a refectory where the squad convenes to eat before and after training.
Another impressive feature of the first-team building is a 56-seat auditorium, where City boss Manuel Pellegrini and his coaching staff can show the players clips from matches or training and go through video analysis with the squad.

Manchester City celebrate winning the English Premier League

A weatherproof video cart films every City training session from pitchside, so the club's video analysis team can do their work and Pellegrini can stop the session at any time to alert the players to something if he deems it necessary.
Pastoral care is something City take seriously and just off the players' lounge is the club's 'player care department', which caters for all the off-field needs of the players, in particular those from overseas who may find it difficult adjusting to the English culture.
The team there address issues such as UK tax, as well as the need for players to behave responsibly, including being aware of the perils of drugs, drink, gambling and using Twitter responsibly.
Awareness posters adorn the walls, with case studies of players who have endured drink or drug problems. The cases of former players like Paul Gascoigne, Paul McGrath and Garry O’Connor, all of whom have battled addiction, are highlighted to warn City's multi-millionaire players of the dangers they can face.
Prominence is given to a poster which reads: 'Train like a professional, Eat like a professional, Drink like a professional, Tweet like a professional'. City can certainly not be accused of not ensuring their players are fully informed about the potential pitfalls that face their players away from the pitch.

The third floor of the first-team building is for residential purposes, where the City squad now stay overnight before every home game. There are
32 en-suite bedrooms for the players and coaching staff, based on four-star hotels, all based on modern hotel designs and tailored to suit the needs of the players, including specifically-made beds and blackout blinds.
City's players used to stay in Manchester's Hilton Hotel before home games, but Zabaleta said staying in the purpose-built residential complex at the training ground was far better for the squad.
“It's better than a hotel because it's more private here,” said Zabaleta. “We don't see people around and it's more comfortable for the team.
“Then there's the facilities – the dressing-room, the spa, even the restaurant and canteen are fantastic. Everything you can imagine is in there.
“As a player coming in for training every day, it's much better here than in my house! I don't care if I spend eight or nine hours here.
“I remember when they were talking about City building a new training ground, but I didn't expect it to be this big.

“I saw pictures, but it's completely different when you are here – everything is just great.
“It's a huge step forward for the club, because it's not just about having a good team, it's also about this club improving facilities.
“Not many teams have the opportunity to have a training ground like that. I've never seen anything like this.”
The Academy building, across from the first-team's base, is equally impressive, with 40 rooms for aspiring young players, as well as additional accommodation for parents and relatives if they need to stay overnight.
There is an additional parents' area, where families can spend time while youngsters train and play, and many of the facilities enjoyed by the first-team squad, including high-spec dressing-rooms, a huge refectory and a an administration and welfare area, designed to ensure young players receive the best education and advice as their careers progress.
On a long wall down a corridor in the Academy stand commemorative discs for every player who has come through the ranks and played for the first-team, although significantly there is no place on the honours wall for convicted rapist Ched Evans, who was at City from 2002 to 2009.

On site training facilities for young players

Inspiration and motivation are two themes running throughout the entire complex, and the Academy is no exception, with the words 'Teamwork, Performance, Respect' adorning the walls, as well as a huge image of Sergio Aguero ripping off his shirt following his dramatic title-winning goal for City on the final day of the 2011-12 season.
The indoor artificial pitch at the Academy is biggest in the country, with its ceiling taller than those at St George’s Park, where the England set-up is based.
Since Sheikh Mansour took control of City in 2008, only one academy graduate, who had not already won promotion to the first-team, has made more than one Premier League start – defender Dedryck Boyata.
With two-thirds of the CFA site dedicated to youth development, the hope at City is that they will soon be producing their own players, with an easing up on the heavy investment in player acquisition which has characterised the club over the past few years.
Patrick Vieira, head of City's Elite Development Squad, and his young players are now based at the new complex, and Zabaleta believes the desire to producing their own players will eventually pay dividend for the club.
That is the challenge for City, now they have made such a commitment to youth development with this ambitious project.
“Even if you have money to buy players from everywhere, you should put attention on the Academy,” said Zabaleta. “They must feel, the young players, if they are good, that they will have a chance one day to play in the Premier League.

“The clubs have to stay focused on that and improve in the level of the managers to make players better. We have a staff working hard to produce young talent for the next generation and the club will benefit 100 per cent from it.
“For the young players it's a great experience to do the same thing we do every day. I wish I'd been training in this kind of facility when I was 18.”
For Zabaleta, there is only one downside to the new training complex – the length of time it takes to get there in the morning.
City's former Carrington base was a mere 20-minute drive from the footballers' enclave of Alderley Edge, Prestbury and Wilmslow, but now the journey can take up to an hour in rush hour.
"Yeah,” sighed Zabaleta, looking to the heavens in despair. “Don't tell me about this. It takes me maybe an hour now. It's really bad in the morning."
City's mega wealth may not enable them to control the traffic, but it has allowed them to build arguably the best training ground on the planet, one they believe will ensure they remain one of the world's leading clubs for years to come.

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Monday, 8 December 2014