The cantera (quarry) of Spanish professional football club CA Osasuna is the organisation's youth academy, developing players from childhood through to the integration of the best prospects into the adult teams.

[2] In the 1990s and 2000s, several prominent players made the journey directly from Pamplona to Bilbao, including Ziganda, Larrainzar, Lacruz, Tiko, Orbaiz, Javi Martínez, David López and Muñoz,[3] while others such as Goikoetxea, José Mari and Ezquerro moved from Osasuna to Athletic via other clubs.

The Biscay organisation have an affiliate team (UDC Txantrea) in Pamplona,[4][5][6] and several promising players who might otherwise have been likely to join Osasuna, the closest major club to their home towns (such as Iraizoz, Gurpegui, Llorente, San José and Muniain) were recruited by Athletic instead.

[11] As a club from a small city with limited resources, the youth department's ability to train such coveted players (as well as provide others to the senior squad) is a vital source of income.

[20] In a rare move in the opposite direction, Areso was welcomed back to Osasuna in the summer of 2021, still looked upon as a good prospect but never used by Athletic's first team and also frozen out in the reserve squad after he and the club failed to agree contractual terms.

[21][22] Another analysis in 2016 concluded that the Navarre region was the most successful in Spain for producing top-level footballers per head of population (25 players, equating to 39 per million residents) thanks to the efforts of both Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao in recruiting and developing local talent.

In the past, players retained after their Juvenil A spell (aged about 17) would typically move to reserve team CA Osasuna B (Promesas) to gain experience in an adult league (Segunda División B level in most years).

In practice, the relegation of Promesas in 2017–18 forced Iruña (whose team had included Jon Moncayola that season)[25] to drop into the Navarre regional leagues,[26] below the level considered beneficial for the development of the youth graduates.