FCBEscola Expands in the Southern California Market
Today, FC Barcelona is announcing its sixth youth soccer academy in the States, FCBEscola San Diego. Always known as a hotbed of youth soccer talent, the San Diego market is immediately responding with interest.
The development of local academies is one of the key strategic initiatives of the club as it expands across the Americas. As you likely know, the ‘Mes Que Un Club’ philosophy courses through everything Barca does, in its home market and around the world, with youth development (values + play) at the heart of it all.
Youth Soccer News: The FCBEscola project continues its international expansion with three new branches set to open in Montreal (Canada), Virginia (United States) and Dammam (Saudi Arabia).
From next season, the city of San Diego will be the host of a permanent FCBEscola branch, the first on the West Coast of the United States, the sixth across the nation and the thirty-sixth school in total.
With the opening of this school, the United States becomes the country with the largest presence of FC Barcelona soccer schools, following the ones already in Florida and Charlotte along with those set to be inaugurated in Austin, Chicago and Virginia. Furthermore, the FCBEscola San Diego will have a charitable component thanks to the agreement made by the new school with San Diego Unified Public Schools, which will help many children in poverty to enjoy the project.
The project was presented in the facilities of Bell Middle School, which is where the FC Barcelona soccer school will be held from this coming September, and was attended by the FCBEscola project director, Franc Carbó; the superintendent of San Diego Unified School District, Cindy Marten; director of San Diego Unified Athletic Department, Scott Giusti; and by the partners of the new school, Marc Segarra and Alex Isern (ISLFUTBOL).
“This is the first official FC Barcelona program in California and the first one to ever partner with the public schools,” said Segarra.
“We are looking for the top, elite players and want to help them develop their talents — Our program is open for everyone and everyone deserves the change to be coached and trained by the very best coaches,” said Segarra.
“We picked San Diego because we want to work with people from all over the world – San Diego is a melting pot, has many diverse cultures and the geography and demographics could not get better,” said Segarra.
“The city of San Diego is very similar to Barcelona — you have the beach, the mountains, the people are very nice and there is great soccer.”
“Everything we do is for the children and future generations. This idea really matched the vision and mission of San Diego Unified School District. Therefore we decided this was the right partnership to access a very competitive market. They are really committed to providing to kids opportunities and we are very proud to work with them,” said Segarra.
¨We are here to provide new development opportunities to children not to take from current local clubs. Any player coming to the Academy will accelerate its development, activate its talent, enhance its confidence and reach its goals on and off the field.¨
“This is it, the first truly and legit FCBarcelona program landing in California. I wanted to reinforce this idea because during our research in this market we located a lot of fakes and cheaters who are pretending to offer the Barcelona methodology. I encourage anybody to come an try first hand the difference between a fake program and our REAL program.
“Under our point of view there is no organization that can train, coach and take care of youth players better than FC Barcelona,” said Segarra. “We know how to treat players — there is no losing, there is only learning. We believe in the power of positive coaching and we have a reach all over the world.”
The activity in the Californian city began during the weekend of May 20 and 21, with the first trials for boys and girls from 6 to 16 years of age that will take place in the facilities of Morse Soccer High. Next tryouts are June 11th.
Thirty-six FCBEscolas across five continents foreseen for the new season
The FCBEscola is the model of FC Barcelona’s football school aimed at children, the main objective of which is the integral training of its students. This model, exported internationally, seeks to extend the Barça brand and transmit the club’s philosophy of hard work and values to the rest of the world.
The FCBEscola works with its own unique model, based on the Barça methodology from the youth teams right up until the first team, with a creative and attacking style of play, and an indispensable transmission of values: respect, humility, effort, ambition and teamwork, with proven success.
FC Barcelona currently has a total of 27 active FCBEscolas, more than 170 campuses and 50 clinics, with a presence in over 40 countries across five continents with more than 40,000 children taking part in the different activities that it promotes. United States, for the first time, will become the country with the biggest presence of the project from September, with the opening of schools in Austin, Chicago, San Diego and Virginia. Inaugurations are also being planned for schools in Haikou and Chengdu, China, in Austin and Virginia, United States, in Bogotá, Colombia and also in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia.
The FCBEscola is the proper name for the flagship FC Barcelona Soccer School for talented youth soccer players — both boys and girls — which attempts to give its pupils allround training. This model, exported on an international scale, attempts to extend the Barça brand and publicize the working philosophy of the Club and its values to the rest of the world.
Related Story: FCBESCOLA CHARLOTTE TEAMS HEAD TO BARCELONA
Photo Credit: FCBEscola
Originally published on May 9, 2017
