Vicente del Bosque, former coach of the Spanish National Team, presented today, together with Banco Santander, the “Vicente del Bosque Football Academy”, accompanied by José Luis Martínez-Almeida, Mayor of Madrid, and José Manuel Franco, President of the Superior Sports Council. The event took place at the Santander Work Café in Paseo Recoletos in Madrid and was also attended by illustrious soccer players such as former players Fernando Morientes, Juanfran and Luis Figo; the coach José Antonio Camacho; the president of Atlético de Madrid, Enrique Cerezo, as well as authorities such as the mayor of Calvià, Alfonso Rodríguez, representing one of the six most emblematic venues of the campus, which this year reaches its thirteenth edition.
Vicente del Bosque, who said he was proud to continue promoting “the formation of values” in soccer through his academy, took the opportunity to launch a message in favor of current coach Luis de la Fuente, despite yesterday’s defeat by Scotland to Spain. “We must not intoxicate,” he assured. “De la Fuente knows Spanish soccer well. Advise him? I wouldn’t say anything to him. He is the best coach for Spanish soccer, the best candidate to lead the national team.” Of the situation between clubs, Del Bosque highlighted, especially, Real Madrid’s role in the Champions League. “It is the top candidate to win it. It has shown a consistency that is impossible to beat”.
The former coach also reflected on the situation involving the refereeing collective in Spanish soccer these days to ensure that “I say this with much regret. It is a very uncomfortable situation for Spanish soccer from which no one benefits. The loss of soccer’s reputation is a very bad thing and we can’t go around with jokes of this kind. It is a delicate moment because soccer should have the best reputation and that is why I talk about LaLiga Genuine Santander because it humanizes everything a little more”.
Vicente del Bosque explained the importance of “human relations” in soccer and how “coaches are getting better every day, which benefits the kids” and said he felt nervous about the premiere of the campus three months before its inauguration in Mallorca and Madrid, as the first venues. In this regard, José Luis Martínez-Almeida stressed that “it is an obligation of the city council to encourage the practice of sports and a campus like this is important for young people to leave the tablet and practice more sports.
The Vicente Del Bosque Football Academy is a consolidated and reference project, based on education and physical activity to promote sport and its values, with more than sixteen years of experience, and with the main headquarters in Calvià, Mallorca, as its flagship. Madrid also heads the list of the six locations of this Summer Camp, together with Cadiz, Estepona, Aragon and Salamanca, and with the novelty of a women’s tournament from April 6 to 9 in Calvià. In addition, Mallorca will once again hold the second edition of the MIFC, Mallorca International Football Cup, from June 23 to 27.
Don Vicente Del Bosque, ambassador of LA LIGA from 2019 in programs promoted by this organization, signs an agreement for the new initiative “Mallorca International Football Cup” organized by Vicente Del Bosque Football Academy.
LaLiga wishes to collaborate with Vicente Del Bosque Football Academy in the organization of the sporting, touristic and integrating event “Mallorca International Football Cup”, represented by Vicente del Bosque, and to this end will formalize its collaboration through the signing of a collaboration agreement with the Vicente Del Bosque Football Academy, adding this event to its calendar of annual participation activities.
LaLiga promotes programs of activities of an institutional, cultural, educational and social nature, with the aim of transforming society with the positive values of soccer, and the “Mallorca International Football Cup” event organized by the Vicente Del Bosque Football Academy meets these requirements for LaLiga.
“I want you to take advantage of soccer to become better,” advises the former Spain coach to the participants in his campus.
“If you don’t dominate the ball, it’s a bad thing…” It was one of the lessons taught by Vicente del Bosque at the opening of his first campus in the cradle of soccer, at the Rayners Lane FC ground in London, in front of eighty boys and girls who proudly wore the shirt of his academy.
“It’s very difficult to get there, but I’m not telling you to stop dreaming,” stressed the “best coach in the world” (awarded as such by FIFA in 2012, after winning the World Cup and the European Championship). “What I want is for you to use soccer as a tool to become better: I don’t know if we’ll be able to make good players out of you, but we’ll make good kids.
“We are coming to London to internationalize our work,” admitted Del Bosque. “And to show in passing that soccer has no borders, even if some people want to put them up again.”
The three-day campus is open to children of all nationalities, but the presence of the “Spanish quarry” has been more than guaranteed through the Cañada Blanch Soccer School, directed by Tomás Ruiz, who acted as presenter at the well-attended ceremony, along with campus director Pau Alberti.
“We are facing a global project that finally arrives in London, after a delay forced by the pandemic,” explained Tomás Ruiz. “Vicente del Bosque not only symbolizes the success of our soccer, but also a way of working, embodied since 2011 in the academy that bears his name and where sports and values training go hand in hand”.
“Soccer teaches you to be generous”, was another of the “lessons” of the maestro Del Bosque, who emphasized that in the “campus” there is no competitive pressure and that what prevails is precisely “friendship with the ball” (technique) and team play, including parents. “Tactics will come later,” stressed the former national team coach, a standard bearer of restraint and balance from the bench.
“There is no single model, but I believe that in soccer it is very important to control emotions,” explained Del Bosque with his usual parsimony. “Although sometimes I see my reaction to Iniesta’s goal, like shrinking and clenching my fists, and I don’t know if I could have celebrated it in any other way…. It fills me with pride to see our heroes, like Xavi or Xabi Alonso, now become coaches”.
About the new national coach, Luis de la Fuente, it is enough for him to say that he is his “friend” and that he hopes he can get the best out of the new generation of the “reds”, despite the puncture in Qatar… “Winning a World Cup is something very difficult, which also requires a touch of luck: we had it in South Africa”.
“Without the victory, nothing is the same,” concluded Del Bosque, in a final lesson in realism. “I probably wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t won the World Cup (…) The truth is that I ended up being a professional coach due to the vicissitudes of life. For 17 years, my job was in the Real Madrid youth academy: working with the youngsters and knowing how to attract them. And to make sure that the best moments of their lives are associated with soccer”.
LaLiga has signed an agreement with Vicente del Bosque Football Academy to promote the new Mallorca International Football Cup initiative, a soccer tournament for boys and girls focused on training in values with a global vocation that will take place in the Balearic Islands between June 28 and July 2.
LaLiga will collaborate with the organization chaired by Don Vicente del Bosque, ambassador from 2019 of LaLiga Genuine, the LaLiga competition for footballers with intellectual disabilities, for the development and promotion of this sporting, touristic and inclusive event, where LaLiga clubs such as Levante UD and Real Betis participate.
The “Mallorca International Football Cup” will have the following categories: Alevín and Infantil, both soccer 8/11 and futsal, integration soccer (Genuine), women’s base soccer and Legends category (veterans).
Both organizations coincide in their commitment to soccer as an educational and integrating tool, and share fundamental values such as tolerance, integration, companionship and sportsmanship, so their collaboration arises naturally.
The Vicente del Bosque Football Academy projects already have more than 12,000 athletes from 26 nationals since its launch in 2011 and, after the success of the 5 editions of the local tournament “Vicente Del Bosque First Mallorca Cup”, which was held between the years 2015-2019, has wanted to go a step further and launch this first edition of the new “Mallorca International Football Cup”, a cultural, social and sporting event with an integrative, family and tourist vocation, which is positioned as a benchmark in this type of events. LaLiga will incorporate this event into the annual calendar of activities in which it participates.
LaLiga, for its part, has extensive experience and know-how in this type of project, and since 2021 has made a firm commitment to training and educational and social sports projects through LaLiga Grassroots, its new global initiative to promote and encourage grassroots soccer around the world, which has already accumulated more than 500 projects in 40 different countries through which more than 175,000 players have been trained.
“We are very pleased to collaborate with Vicente del Bosque Football Academy, as we share very similar ideas about the role of soccer as a tool to improve society through the positive values of sport. From LaLiga we are firmly committed to grassroots soccer for the development from childhood not only of good soccer players but also of good people, and we also have pioneering social projects at a global level such as LaLiga Genuine, our competition for players with intellectual disabilities, unique in the world, of which Vicente del Bosque is an ambassador. “Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, said.
“We are convinced that going hand in hand with LaLiga in the sports training projects that we carry out at the Academy and especially in the new” Mallorca International Football Cup “initiative to promote family tourism through sport for all, is the best way to give visibility to all groups that practice soccer, creating a benchmark event that can be established in the calendar in the coming years with international repercussions,” says Vicente del Bosque.
Mondelēz’s iconic cookie brand invites consumers to enjoy their favorite sports as a family and live unique experiences through three exceptional allies.
Fernando Morientes, Amaya Valdemoro and Carlos Moyá have become brand ambassadors.
This limited edition will include sports motifs on its packs and, for the first time, also on its cookies.
Encouraging an active and balanced lifestyle, as well as enjoying sports as a family to connect different generations and create memorable memories, is the goal of the new Príncipe Sports Academy. This initiative by Príncipe, the renowned cookie brand from Mondelēz International, has been joined by three fellow travel partners: the prestigious sports academies Vicente del Bosque Football Academy, Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar and Movistar Estudiantes Academy.
Thanks to the alliance with these three leading institutions in sports values training, consumers will have the opportunity to enjoy sports in a very special way with their families and with the help of great professionals. In this way, Príncipe seeks to unite different generations through sports, fostering family bonds, in the same way that its cookies invite families to share moments of happiness together, generation after generation.
“After two years collaborating with La Roja, this year at Principe we want to go a step further with respect to one of our brand purposes: trying to make families happy by uniting generations through sports. For this reason, the Príncipe Sports Academy not only aims to promote sport and physical activity in consumers’ day-to-day lives, but, thanks to sports academies with a wealth of experience, we also want families to be able to enjoy memorable experiences and strengthen their bonds while enjoying unique sporting environments.” saidFilipe Salsinha, Bakery Marketing Director Mondelēz in Iberia.
Through this new initiative, which will be available in Spain until November 30, the brand is raffling different experiences with its three partners to experience sports as a family at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar in Mallorca, at the Movistar Estudiantes academy in Madrid or at Vicente del Bosque ‘s soccer campus in Mallorca. On the other hand, for the first time in its history, the iconic drawings printed on its cookies will include silhouettes of soccer, tennis and basketball balls randomly inside the blue packs. In addition, to give visibility to the initiative, approximately 6 million customized packs have been produced with exclusive designs of its emblematic prince in which he appears linked to sports and academies. In this way, Príncipe Sports Academy will be present in more than 90% of the brand’s portfolio, specifically in the varieties Príncipe Original, Príncipe Maxichoc, Príncipe Estrellas and Príncipe Minis.
It is worth recalling that the WHO insists on the need for countries and communities to take steps to provide more opportunities for all people to be active, in order to increase physical activity.[1] This requires a collective effort and its implementation in different sectors and disciplines. Príncipe is no stranger to this reality and, with the aim of promoting, enabling and encouraging physical activity among consumers, takes a step further into the territory of sports by creating the Príncipe Sports Academy.
For his part, Pau Albertí, director of the Vicente del Bosque Football Academy, said: “The Vicente del Bosque soccer campus has established itself as a benchmark in education and physical activity that promotes sports and values such as friendship, integration and companionship. We hope that this collaboration with Príncipe Sports Academy will continue along this path and, above all, will serve to unite families around the practice of sports”.
To make itself known, the Príncipe Sports Academy will also have great ambassadors from the world of sports such as Carlos Moyá, Fernando Morientes and Amaya Valdemoro, who will encourage families to practice sports together and participate in this activation.
About Mondelēz International
Mondelēz International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) empowers people to snack right in more than 150 countries around the world. With net revenues of approximately $31 billion in 2022, MDLZ is leading the future of snacking through iconic international and local brands such as Oreo, Fontaneda, and LU cookies, Suchard, Milka and Toblerone chocolate, Halls candies, Trident gum and cheeses such as Philadelphia or El Caserío. Mondelēz International is proud to be part of the Standard and Poor’s 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. You can visit their website at http://www.mondelezinternational.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDLZ.
Next Wednesday, January 24the Vicente del Bosque Football Academy Management will be present along with Mr. Vicente del Bosque to the International Fair Fiturin Madrid, to be presented at the stand of the Balearic Islands, together with the president of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens and the mayor of Calvià, Juan Antonio AmengualThe events that the Academy will celebrate one more year in the municipality of Calvià, Mallorca.
From 2011 to the present, the Vicente del Bosque Football Academy has become a worldwide project for sports training in values, with more than 15,500 athletes of 26 nationalities participating. After five editions of the local tournament “Vicente Del Bosque First Mallorca Cup” that has been held from 2015 to 2019, and the second international edition last April and June 2023 in which 96 teams from 8 countries and nearly 3,000 people between players, coaches, staff, families and fans have participated.
We invite you to learn more about our world-class sporting, tourism and integration events.
The meeting is scheduled at 10:45 am at the Balearic Islands Stand.
The meeting will be followed by a press conference. More information at https://mallorcafootballcup.com
