Global Fútbol

The Unleash the Roar! project, supported by the government of Singapore and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), together with LaLiga to promote the development of grassroots football in the country, lands in Spain to undertake its second phase.

A delegation of 20 young U13 players has been in Madrid, Spain, for a month-long exclusive training camp in which they experienced a unique programme, LaLiga Training Stages, based around LaLiga and several of its clubs. This is another step in the project that started in season 21-22 and, thanks to which, the institutions are already working together in Singapore with high level coaches chosen by LaLiga together with the local team and a coordinator led by the LaLiga office in Singapore.

LaLiga, through its initiative to promote global football LaLiga Grassroots, designed an intensive unique plan that started with a first level training camp. This part took place in the 'ESC Centre LaLiga&NBA', which LaLiga created together with the NBA.

The Singaporean players, selected through a coordinated process between the UTR project's technical team and LaLiga during the months of September and October, have trained in this unique state-of-the-art centre specialising in sports training from two leading organisations. Equipped with first class facilities, it has all the services for the optimal sporting, academic and personal development of young athletes, as well as specialised coaches.  

In addition to this training phase at the centre, the selected players played friendly matches with teams from some of Spain's top youth teams of CF Fuenlabrada, Getafe CF, Rayo Vallecano and Atlético de Madrid. Then, in smaller groups, they joined to the academies of renowned clubs such as Real Sociedad, Deportivo Alavés, RC Celta, Atlético de Madrid and Levante UD. In these high-level academies they received specialised training during the immersion process.

“We are very happy with this project, which is always an exchange of knowledge for both parties and which favours the development of football on an international level, and it is an honour to work together with a partner like SportSG,” said Iván Codina, LaLiga's director for Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan and Australia.  

“LaLiga Grassroots wants to build on the experience gained from the more than 550 projects carried out since we started in 2015, to offer training programmes tailored to the needs of young players in Singapore. We are convinced that this initiative is a great step forward for the development of grassroots football in the country,” said Juan Florit, head of the technical and sporting side of LaLiga Grassroots.

The project, promoted by SportSG and the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and supported by the Ministries of Education, Culture and Defence, aims to promote and enhance the development of grassroots sport among its nearly six million inhabitants. Furthermore, LaLiga plays a leading role in this plan and will take its relations with the different institutions to a new level through the signing of an agreement which, in this first phase, will last for two years.