FC Barcelona to set-up Official Football School in India

Within two months of announcing its plan to enter India in October 2011, Catalan giants FC Barcelona through the FCBEscola completed the first couple of FCBCamps in December 2011 and January 2012. With the second set of camps already underway, more than a thousand enthusiastic young footballers will have experienced the Barça life. The participants have come from over a 100 schools and from more than 20 cities across the country like Delhi, Bangalore, Kochi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Baroda and Pune to name a few.

Taking forward its commitment, FC Barcelona today announced the setting-up of its official Football School FCBEscola in Delhi-NCR. It is the school model of FC Barcelona, exported internationally with the idea of extending the Barça brand and values to the world. FCBEscola Delhi will be set-up in association with Conscient Football, the only official partner of the club in India. FCBEscola will be operational within 2012 and will have capacity for around 300 players between 6 -14 years of age. This will create a long-term training and development platform for aspiring footballers in India.

Subsequent to Delhi, Barça and Conscient Football plan to expand the various programs into other major Indian cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Goa, Pune, Ahmedabad to name a few.

Addressing the launch of FCBEscola Delhi in a press conference, Xevi Marce, Director of FCBEscola, said, "This is one of the most ambitious projects for FCBEscola worldwide. We hope to train 10,000 young footballers in coming three years and with FCBEscola we will provide the depth and the quality needed to develop coaches and players from a very young age. We are very excited to be here and to share our vision with Conscient Football."

Xevi Marce introduced Antonio Claveria as the Technical Director for FCBEscola Delhi, who will be stationed here. Since the announcement of FCBEscola plans in October 2011 his team has been preparing him for the role. Antonio Claveria added, "It was a great experience for me to start the Barça India project in December 2011 and now I am thrilled to be the Technical Director of FCBEscola Delhi. I am looking forward to working with talented youngsters on a sustained and regular basis to nurture India's young footballers."

FC Barcelona is globally recognized for its ability to develop players. Eight players in Spain's 2010 FIFA World Cup winning squad were from FCB, and 50% of FCB's current first team are products of its youth system. Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Victor Valdes, Gerald Pique, Carlos Puyol, Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara, Pedro are some of the top players trained under the Barça philosophy. FCBEscola Delhi will offer world-class training under the same successful methodology.

The school will come up in Delhi-NCR in partnership with Conscient Football, a grassroots football development initiative dedicated to raising the bar of football programming across India. Speaking at the launch, Anupama Jain - Director, Conscient Football, said, "We set out to bring the best to our country and are very proud to launch FCBEscola. With this, we will be able to create a pathway for young footballers to continue their development under the world's most successful training methodology. We believe that this will contribute towards the development of better players and citizens while helping India become a stronger footballing nation."

Also present at the conference were Josep Moratalla, former FC Barcelona player, who played with Diego Maradona and Bernd Schuster; Rajesh Jain, Director Conscient Group, and Tarun Chaudhry, COO Conscient Football.