FC Barcelona´s official website reported about the establishment of 2 new football schools in Cairo. Following the success of the two football training schools in Mexico and several agreements in Argentina, FC Barcelona has opened a new football school in Cairo, Egypt, and will have a second one in February.


Cairo centre's manager Ruben Della explained:

We deal with complete training as both footballers and people, educating by means of the values associated with Barça. We are preparing new objectives for this year. We have already achieved the first two goals, which were to open the school and then promote it to enough children to fill it. The children need to grow up in an educational environment and they get plenty of practice through an internal competition played between the different school teams. They are all monitored as footballers, but we never put any type of pressure on them, which is why we never compete with other schools or clubs.

The centre currently hosts almost 250 children aged between 5 and 15 years. The facilities are all first class, with grass pitches and everything the children and parents might require. All of the technical staff are highly qualified educators but had to adapt to the Barca style of doing things:

They are trained people and we have had to transmit the Barça method to them, as there are so many ways of transferring knowledge in football. They have assimilated the task very well, and we are very satisfied with the way they are working.

Centre manager Della´s biggest concern was adapting to local traditions and religion, including the Muslim community, which is by far the largest group in Egypt:

This has been one of the most positive surprises. All we had to do was adapt the work schedules to prayer times. Through sport, we have been able to bring different religions and cultures together, and we have found that the parents have been more than happy with the arrangement.

If you are interested in Egyptian football, than look at: www.socceregypt.com