Boca Juniors Reserves and Academy

Active departments of C.A. Boca Juniors
Football Football Reserves Women's Football Basketball

Known as "The Boca Factory", Boca Juniors youth divisions contains teams from under-8 to under-20 level. They participate in Argentina's youth leagues organized by the Argentine Football Association. In 1996 Mauricio Macri (who had been elected president of the club one year later) stated that rather than buy players for huge money only to put too much expectation on them and watch them under-perform, they wanted to create their own stars. Therefore, Boca hired two very influential figures; one was Bernardo Griffa, a leading expert of youth in Argentina who had created a successful scouting network at Newell's Old Boys.^[5] The second was Ramón Maddoni,^[6] the king of 'baby football' (indoor six-a-side football for 5–12 year olds), who had a long career at Club Parque at the moment of being hired by Boca Juniors.^[7][8]

Since then, Boca's academy has brought through, and also sold, more than 350 homegrown players from all age categories. From the list of the 350 players, more than 130 of the academy graduates would play around the world, including in Argentina, Spain, Italy, England and many others in places ranging from Germany and the Netherlands to China and Israel. More than 35 leagues contain players that were raised and developed by the Boca academy system. The players are taught the same formation (4–3–1–2) from early on to the first-team. This makes fitting into the first-team far easier for a young player. Boca's under-20 team were regular participants in the Under-20 Copa Libertadores and other international youth football tournaments.^[9][10]

Boca Juniors won their first U-20 Copa Libertadores in 2023 after defeating Ecuadorian team Independiente del Valle 2–0 in the final at Estadio La Portada.^[11]

The scouting system is comprehensive. There is a Boca Juniors scout in every small town and close to every village. Nearly all are ordinary people, such as teachers, butchers or policemen, and the head of the youth system, Jorge Griffa, regularly travel around Argentina when he took over and listened to the watching crowd, hiring the most appropriate as a scout for the area.

As of 1 July 2025

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 34 DF  ARG Mateo Mendía 35 FW  ARG Valentino Simoni 36 MF  ARG Tomás Aranda 37 GK  ARG Sebastián Díaz Robles 38 MF  ARG Camilo Rey Domenech 39 MF  ARG Dante González 41 FW  ARG Iker Zufiaurre 44 FW  ARG Leonel Flores 45 DF  ARG Santiago Zampieri 46 MF  ARG Juan Cruz Payal 47 DF  ARG Facundo Herrera 48 DF  ARG Dylan Gorosito 51 MF  ARG Santiago Dalmasso 52 DF  ARG Walter Molas 53 MF  ARG Joaquín Ruiz — GK  ARG Fernando Rodríguez — DF  ARG Jerónimo Campos

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  ARG Agustín Colmegna — DF  ARG Kevin Giménez — DF  PAR Gadiel Paoli — DF  ARG Brandon Rossi — DF  ARG Matías Satas — DF  ARG Thomas Villafañe — MF  ARG Lautaro Bianco — MF  ARG Matías Calegari — MF  ARG Ramiro Luján — MF  ARG Tomás Márquez — MF  ARG Juan Pablo Moreno — FW  ARG Rodrigo Bacidalupe — FW  ARG Gonzalo Gelini — FW  ARG Ezequiel González — FW  ARG Julián Mendieta — FW  ARG Fabricio Ventresca

• Bernardo Gandulla (1947–1978) ^[13]
• Ernesto Grillo (1966–?) ^[13][14]
• Jorge Griffa (1995–2003) ^[15]
• Norberto Madurga^[16]

Other former club players that have coached the reserve teams include Rolando Schiavi, Sebastián Battaglia, Hugo Ibarra, and Mauricio Serna.^[17]

Boca Juniors reserves' main venue is the "Boca Juniors Training Center" (popularly known as "Boca Predio"), a sports complex in the city of Ezeiza, Buenos Aires that was inaugurated in 2017 under the presidency of Daniel Angelici. The complex was built on a land conceded by the Municipality of Ezeiza for sports activities exclusively and with an expiration time of 30 years (that may be renewed for a further 10 years). The club spent AR$60 million on works.^[18]

The 60 hectares complex has 12 football fields, locker rooms, gymnasium, kitchen, and other facilities.^[19]

Named after former vicepresident of the club, the complex is the second venue of Boca Juniors academies. It is located on Casa Amarilla lands in La Boca. The venue is also used by the women's football and basketball teams.

The historic complex for the Boca Juniors academy, La Candela was acquired by the club in 1963 for mn$13 million, being operative until 1991.^[20] The 4 hectares complex located in San Justo, Buenos Aires, had been acquired during the presidency of Alberto J. Armando. The first squad of the club also trained at La Candela, which entered into disuse under the presidency of Mauricio Macri, when the reserves teams moved their training sessions to Parque Presidente Sarmiento in Saavedra, Buenos Aires.^[21] The complex was finally sold in 2005 to the "Centro de Entrenamiento para Futbolistas de Alto Rendimiento" (CEFAR) for US$350,000.^[20][22] Nevertheless, Boca Juniors reacquired the complex at a cost of US$12 million in 2011.^[21]

Boca Juniors used the complex until December 2016, when the club moved all the reserves' infrastructure to the new Boca Predio in Ezeiza.^[23]