The Cebu Football Community will have another historic moment with no less than FC Barcelona, one of the most popular football clubs in the world, to hold a training camp here from October 26 to 30 to be handled by its official football school—the FCB Escola.
FC Barcelona is the club of football stars Lionel Messi of Argentina, Neymar Jr. of Brazil and Spain’s star players Andres Iniesta, Xabi Alonso and Carles Puyol.
The five-day camp dubbed as the FC Barcelona Escola (FCBE) Football Camp Philippines is organized by Team Socceroo led by the Reyes brothers—Nicholas, Michael and Paulus.
It will be the first time since the event’s launching last year that it has ventured in the Visayas but perhaps not surprising with the club recognizing Paulino Alcantara, a Filipino-Spanish player, as one of its first real stars, hailing from the region.
Alcantara, who was born in Iloilo, used to hold the club’s all-time goal-scoring record before he was surpassed by Messi early this year.
The camp will be conducted by two coaches of the FC Barcelona with Carles Martin, the technical director of FCBE Asia-Pacific, promising the participants the real Barcelona experience.
The impressive performances of Cebuano football players and the number of players who have joined the first two camps in Manila last year are factors that draw the organizers to hold a camp in Cebu.
“A number of kids from Cebu went to Manila for the camp last year and this is an indicator that Cebu is a good opportunity for Barca (FCB),” Michael Reyes said during the press conference for the camp held last Thursday at the Cebu Parklane International Hotel.
Also in attendance during the press conference were members of the Cebu Football Association (CFA) Board led by its president Ricky Dakay, who lauded the organizers for bringing the event to Cebu, the first time that the camp will be held outside Manila.
“This is a much welcome addition to the busy schedule of Cebu football and it is one way of developing grassroots and hopefully spotting talents,” said Dakay.
The FCBE Football Camp Philippines was launched last year with two camps held in Alabang and Taguig.
According to Nicholas Reyes, “the Barca way is one of the perfect ways that suits Filipinos because of our height and size.”
He also emphasized that the camp will be training the kids to be good people on and off the pitch.
The camp is open to kids aged six to 14 and if you want your kids to learn football or enhance their football knowledge the “Barca way”, sign them up now via http://www.fcbescolaphilippines.com.
