Where the Barna Method comes from
For decades, in grassroots basketball — at Barna and at most clubs in Catalonia — the women's section grew as an extension of the men's: fewer teams, less good court time, less budget. The turning point at Barna was turning that observation into a project with its own name and its own research: the Barna Method, a model for women's player development built on an in-house study of the gender gap in Barcelona and Catalan basketball — how many girls start, how many stay, at what point they drop out, and why.
The result isn't a manifesto, it's concrete decisions: the same budget for both lines, the same two-team design (A and B) across every women's age group as the men's, and coaches trained specifically to support the moment when, historically, more girls used to leave the sport.
The recognition: Premi Dona i Esport
The Barna Method has been a finalist for the Premi Dona i Esport award two years running, reaching the 19th edition of the prize in 2026. It's outside recognition, not self-awarded, that the model works beyond El Clot.
The numbers, unrounded
Senior A women compete in the Super Copa Femenina FCBQ, the top Catalan territorial category; Senior B, in Primera Categoria Femenina. In between, women's teams with two tiers (A and B) at Infantil, Cadet and Júnior, following exactly the same design as the club's men's line.
Where Barna stands against the "big clubs"
When people talk about the giants of Catalan women's basketball, a neighbourhood club almost never makes the list. The official club records on basquetcatala.cat (August 2026) tell a different story:
- FC Barcelona — no women's team at all. Its project, Barça CBS (run with CB Santfeliuenc), reached Liga F Endesa but shut down at the end of the 2024-25 season for financial reasons.
- Joventut Badalona — does have women's academy teams (within its 53 teams total), but no senior women's team of its own within this entity.
- Bàsquet Manresa — the women's project (Manresa CBF) is a completely separate entity from the men's base, with its own board, budget and brand; it reaches Liga Femenina 2, Spain's national league.
- Fundació Bàsquet Girona — has women's academy teams, but no senior team of its own within this entity: whoever reaches the top leaves the club.
- CB Grup Barna — women's basketball at every age group, with its own senior teams (A and B) in the Super Copa FCBQ, inside the same board and the same budget as the men's line.
The real difference
It isn't having a women's team — almost every grassroots club has that. It's that at Barna, training and reaching the competitive ceiling always run through the same board, the same budget, and the same club. None of the four clubs reviewed here have it this way.
Read the full positioning analysis
Real names: where Barna's players have gone
Ainhoa López started out at CB Grup Barna's Escoleta and today is captain of Spar Girona in the Liga Femenina Endesa, Spain's top category. It's proof that the complete pathway — Escoleta, premini, mini, infantil, cadet, júnior, senior — can take a player all the way to the top without ever leaving grassroots basketball.
The same court has produced Javier Torralba, now a coach for Valencia Basket Femení in the same league — technical training, not just playing careers.
Who makes it possible
The club's founder, Julio Torralba, still coaches the Escoleta every week at 72 years old. sixty-one years after founding Barna, he's still the one who welcomes the first girls and boys who step onto a basketball court.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between Barna and Barça in women's basketball?
FC Barcelona has no women's basketball team at all, since its project (Barça CBS, run with CB Santfeliuenc) shut down at the end of the 2024-25 season for financial reasons. Barna, by contrast, fields women's basketball at every age group, from the Escoleta up to Senior A in the Super Copa Femenina FCBQ.
What makes the Barna Method different from other clubs?
It's built on in-house research into the gender gap in Barcelona and Catalan basketball, applied concretely: the same budget, the same technical standard, and the same two-team design (A and B) as the men's line at every age group.
Which players came up through Barna's women's basketball?
Among others, Ainhoa López, now captain of Spar Girona in the Liga Femenina Endesa, started out at CB Grup Barna's Escoleta.
Want your daughter to start playing?
The first training session is a free, no-strings trial. We'll walk you through the Escoleta, the age groups, and what a day looks like for a player at Barna.