Long read: how River Plate rebuilt their academy

The decade-long project paying off in front of our eyes.

How did River Plate become South America's most consistent talent factory? It started with a near-bankruptcy in 2011 — and an unfashionable decision to invest in nine-year-olds.

This long read traces the arc: from the academy's reconstruction under a new sporting director, through the famous 2018 Copa Libertadores triumph, to today, where the senior squad regularly fields seven graduates of the youth system.

We spoke to scouts in Misiones who first spotted current stars at age 11. We spoke to the academy coaches who refused to give up on a midfielder everyone else had written off as too small. We spoke to the parents who packed their lives into a station wagon and moved to Buenos Aires for a trial.

The result is a portrait of a club that, against all the gravitational pull of European money, has decided its identity matters more.