Article updated: 16/09/2025
There had been talk of a new stadium for Barcelona’s reserve side for nearly 15 years. Their existing home, the Mini Estadi, had been the perennial fall guy as Barça drafted, published and withdrew several plans for the redevelopment of the Camp Nou. Eventually, in January 2014, the club announced a €600 million redevelopment of their home stadium. While this plan was subject to further delays, the demise of the Mini Estadi was the one constant. Two months before this announcement, the club had purchased a plot of land next to their training complex in Sant Joan Despí for €8.27m. On this land would stand the new home of Barcelona B & Barcelona Femeni.
In May 2015, Battle & Roig Architects Studio won the tender to design the new stadium. Their winning entry featured a twin-decked main stand, inspired by the club’s old Campo de la Calle Industria, whilst the remaining three sides featured six rows of seats under a shallow cantilevered cover. On 24 March 2017, on the first anniversary of the death of Johan Cruyff, Barça announced that the new stadium would bear the name of the club’s legendary player & manager. The first ground at the site was officially broken on 14 September 2017 at a ceremony attended by club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, captain Andrés Iniesta, representatives of Barcelona B & Barcelona Femeni, and the mayor of Sant Joan Despí.
The Estadi Johan Cruyff was officially inaugurated on 27 August 2019. President Bartomeu was again in attendance, along with Cruyff’s widow, Danny, and son, Jordi. The first team was represented by Messi, Busquets & Piqué, as well as the recent signing from Ajax, Frenkie de Jong. Barcelona B captain, Sarsanedas & Femeni captain Torrejón were also in attendance. Jordi Cruyff was given the honour of kicking off the first match, a friendly between the youth sides of Barcelona & Ajax, which Ajax won 0-2, with Nacir Unuvar scoring both goals for the young Dutch side. Five days later, on 1 September 2019, Barcelona B played the first official match at the stadium, with Barça’s Jorge Cuenca scoring the first goal after 2 minutes, in a 2-2 draw with Gimnàstic de Tarragona.
Barça describes the new stadium as the crown jewel at the Ciutat Esportiva. It is a fitting tribute to the man who did so much as a player and manager, and one that emphasises the club’s commitment to youth development. The stadium has a capacity of 6,000 seats, 5,000 in a continuous lower ring, and the remainder housed in the upper tier of the main stand. It has a UEFA Category 3 Status licence, meaning it can stage UEFA Youth League matches, as well as fixtures in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. It is also sanctioned by the LFP for matches in La Segunda. The stadium has excellent media facilities, with the press box & TV gantry suspended from the underside of the main stand’s roof. Floodlights run along the top of this roof, whilst two thin pylons situated opposite provide the rest of the illumination. On 14 September 2025, the First XI’s Primera fixture with Valencia was switched to the Estadi Johan Cruyff. The protracted redevelopment of the Camp Nou and the unavailability of the Estadi Luís Companys saw La Liga give Barça special dispensation to play the match at the stadium, despite it not meeting the League’s minimum capacity requirement.
The stadium cost €12 million, or €2,000 per seat. Not cheap for a reserve-team stadium, but it does have many of the features that are now commonplace in stadiums five times its size. The pitch, lighting, and seating are all state-of-the-art, and environmental issues are addressed. Rainwater is collected and used to irrigate the playing surface, and numerous trees were planted to replace those lost when the site was cleared. Although 700 parking spaces does seem to go against this policy! The Estadi Johan Cruyff is a modern take on the classic Iberian stadium design, and one that does justice to the great man.
The reserve team, which was renamed Futbol Club Barcelona Atlètic in 2022, had spent seven of the previous ten seasons ahead of the move in La Segunda. They dropped to Segunda B in 2018 but then ran up a series of top-four finishes in the third tier, only to be tripped up by the playoffs. CE Sabadell in 2020, UCAM Murcia in 2021, Real Madrid-Castilla in 2023 and Córdoba CF in 2024 all got the better of Barça’s reserves at the business end of the season. The summer of 2024 saw many of the reserve side graduate to the First XI, and Barcelona Atlétic entered one of its fallow periods as its youngsters struggled in the Primera Federación, dropping to the Segunda Federación at the end of the 2024-25 season.
Estadios de España 