February 28 – LaLiga’s Valencia CF has added to its growing global network of academies with the opening of a new VCF Academy in Morocco.
Designed to become a national programme for the club in Morocco, the academy will have a number of different initiatives for youth players and will be based in different cities, though it will base operations at first in Marrakech. Casablanca and Safi are earmarked as expansion cities for the programme.
Morocco is Valencia’s first venture into Africa and is working with DK Pro Sports on the project. Other countries where Valencia has academy presence are Japan (Osaka and Wakayama), USA (New York, Miami, Seattle), Canada, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the UK, Estonia and Greece.
The Valencia model is to implement the same training methodology that the club has at its Ciudad Deportiva training facility in Valencia. Campuses and training clinics will be carried out in several areas of the country, and players from the different programmes will have the chance to travel to Valencia to for training camps and to experience the city and Spanish culture.
Khalid Chagna, Co-Director and founder of DK Pro Sports, said: “Our intention is to provide young people with the opportunity to develop as footballers with the methodology of Valencia CF, a club characterised by their good work at youth level.
“The characteristics of Moroccan players are very similar to those of Spanish players, but they do not have the same possibilities of developing adequately, and this is something that we want to solve with the experience of Valencia CF.”
Valencia coaching presence in Morocco will be headed by Enzo Aliaga, a UEFA Pro licenced coach who has spent several years at the VCF Academy and who will be based in Marrakech.
Luis Martinez, Valencia CF Academy Director, said: “As an academy, we are delighted to open this new project in Morocco, the main footballing hotbed in Africa. As a club, we want to help young people to develop under the Valencia CF methodology, in a way that is always tied in to the sporting values that represent us.”
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