Barcelona fail to pick a homegrown player for first time in 16 years LaLiga - Barcelona Rotations remove La Masia products

For a club with such an esteemed history of producing top quality footballers, the fact that Barcelona's starting line-up against Celta Vigo featured no academy products is something of a shock.

Ernesto Valverde chose to rotate his squad for Tuesday's game with the upcoming Copa del Rey final high on his mind, meaning Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Sergi Roberto were taken out the XI.

In their place came no players who learned their trade at La Masia, which hasn't occurred in 16 years, since Barcelona faced Athletic Club on April 6, 2002.

On that night, the team featured: Roberto Bonano; Michael Reiziger, Philippe Christanval, Abelardo Fernandez, Francesco Coco; Fabio Rochemback, Phillip Cocu, Luis Enrique; Rivaldo, Javier Saviola and Marc Overmars.

The Blaugrana won 2-0 that night at San Mames and a similar homegrown-less XI also played that season in the Champions League semi-finals, versus Real Madrid.

This time around, the closest player to an academy product starting at Estadio Balaidos was Denis Suarez, who played for the Barcelona B team but was formed primarily at Celta Vigo and Manchester City.