Real Betis cantera Madrid, Juventus and Spain. Betis face a battle with city rivals Sevilla to sign the best local prospects. As at senior level, over recent years Sevilla have been slightly superior to Betis, both in terms of success in youth competitions and producing quality players for the first team. The best achievements of the Betis senior side in the early 21st century, when they won the 2004–05 Copa del Rey and finished 4th in the league in the same season to qualify for the Champions League, were accomplished with a high number of homegrown players in the squad including Capi, David
Gualberto García Pérez Triana when his entire school football team was absorbed into the professional Real Betis Balompié soccer club. Gualberto would reach the All-Andalusian team and others, like Quino (Joaquín Sierra Vallejo), would go so far as to play for the Spanish national football team. At the age of 17, Gualberto quit football to dedicate himself to music, forming the rock group The Bats, which was followed in 1967 by Smash, a group which pioneered Spanish and Andalusian Rock history. After disbanding the group, Gualberto left Spain for the US to study music, alongside his first wife, Jessica Jones Carson, an American