Cape Town - Spain played some scintillating football to open their 2022 Fifa World Cup campaign in style with a 7-0 demolition of Costa Rica in a Group E pipe-opener.
Experts have not tagged Spain as the tournament favourites because the smart money will be on Brazil, Belgium, Argentina, France and England. The word favourites will be used with reference to Spain only in the context of them being the most-fancied team in Group E.
Spain's squad undergoing a transitional period with a host of young players being bedded into the squad, and against Costa Rica several players oozed flair and creativity.
A few months ago, Spanish football through its associate member LaLiga started an association with the NBA, one of the world's foremost sports organisations. The National Basketball Association (NBA), based in North America, is the world’s third-richest sports organisation.
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LaLiga approached the NBA because it felt it could learn a great deal from one of the world’s leading sports organisations. The strange bedfellows have decided to co-exist at a 43000sqm facility in Madrid, Spain.
Some of the features there include two football pitches (one grass and one artificial grass), a high-performance gymnasium, a basketball hall with three main courts and a pavilion, an international school and a residence for 450 people.
The sporting development of players will run parallel to the educational component along the lines of what is offered at US-based academies for golf, tennis, basketball and gridiron.
The state-of-the-art, world-beating sports complex in Madrid is the flagship of LaLiga's projects around the world.
The Spanish organisation, which is home to two of the world's most popular clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, has concluded a historic football development partnership for a project over the next 12 months. In the past seven years, LaLiga have embarked on more than 600 projects around the world and employs just over 900 coaches to sustain the programmes.
Javier Hernández, Head of Business Development and International at LaLiga Grassroots, said: “ESC LaLiga & NBA is the answer to the sports industry’s need for facilities with these characteristics.
"In addition, the complex will be an asset at the service of LaLiga’s 42 clubs, who will be able to use it for their sports projects and events.”
The players will train using LaLiga methodology with the coaches leading the process being LaLiga coaches with top-level training, holding Uefa Pro licences as well as international experience in Spanish youth academies.
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“The complex is designed with the concept of the ‘Olympic Village’, which means that any interested party can use the facilities, and will also be the home of LaLiga and the NBA,” says David Pampliega, General Global Manager of T3N Sport & Investment.
“We have created a model that changes the paradigm of education and training of athletes,” says Kiyomi Cerezo, CEO of T3N Sport & Investment.
Juan Florit, head of LaLiga Sports Projects, oversees the technical and sports side of LaLiga Grassroots.
“Our activities will mainly focus on the holistic development of young players, international training programmes for professionals in the sector, and projects to promote and support LaLiga clubs when it comes to their academies and running international tournaments,” said Florit.
This new project represents a further step in LaLiga’s creation and execution of sports projects, an area through which it has enjoyed great success over the last six seasons. This includes finding positions for nearly 750 Spanish coaches, as well as providing training for more than 20,000 coaches and 175,000 players for the projects carried out across 38 countries.
IOL Sport