At the end of last week, LaLiga announced the launch of LaLiga Grassroots, in its bid to further advance and improve its bespoke sports and training projects as well as the promotion of LaLiga’s know-how and methodology. This initiative is part of a series of international sports projects that LaLiga has been running since 2015 across multiple markets, and its most salient new feature is this series of programmes which will take place in Spain. These will mainly be held at the ESC Madrid Center, a state-of-the-art, world-beating sports complex.

“LaLiga Grassroots was conceived as a new specialised unit conceived by the Sports Projects team and the International Business and Development team,” explains Juan Florit, head of LaLiga Sports Projects and who will be in charge of 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.”

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 in the more than 400 projects carried out across 38 countries.

“The work we’ve carried out over the years in training players and coaches internationally has taken things to the next level, not only for those who have worked with LaLiga, but also for the league itself and its clubs,” says Javier Hernandez, Head of Business and International development for the project. “We’re convinced that now, with the creation of LaLiga Grassroots and the new programmes that we’ll be running at the ESC Madrid Center, we’ll be able to create better opportunities for everyone.”

Two big programmes and unique, world-class facilities

LaLiga Grassroots offers a variety of programmes which focus on improving players’ abilities through channelling the power of sport as an educational tool to promote their all-round development. Within the Grassroots project, there are two long-term programmes aimed at young people from all over the world set to take place in Spain and which are the most notable:

LaLiga Talents and LaLiga Academy.

These programmes are aimed at male and female players between the ages of 13 and 18 years and are oriented towards giving these athletes an all-round training experience, taking care of and supporting their personal development both on and off the pitch. The main difference between both programmes is that LaLiga Talents is centred around players who already work in a high-performance training environment, with the aim of helping them develop and get the most out of their talent to reach the best level attainable, while LaLiga Academy focuses on improving and optimising the abilities of players who want to experience a unique sports and educational programme curated by LaLiga.

There will be short-term and long-term activities included in these programmes such as LaLiga Camps and high-performance training camps for teams, mixed groups and international players. These aim to improve both preparation and development on an individual and collective level.

All programmes in Spain will take place at the ESC Madrid Center, a state-of-the-art complex that will open its doors in the summer of 2022.

The centre has an on-site 400-capacity residence with 24-hour security, an international school equipped with an auditorium, library, laboratory, clinic, as well as several game, rest and study rooms. Likewise, the complex houses two state-of-the-art football pitches and various training areas, an NBA court, gym and a swimming pool. Overall, this makes the centre the ideal place to achieve the synergy between sports training and academic education that LaLiga Grassroots projects seek to achieve.

These facilities will be available to all LaLiga clubs wishing to run training programmes, carry out brand internationalisation projects or have other needs, and they will also have the LaLiga Academy Manager software, created by LaLiga in order to optimise the management and daily operation of academies.

Registration for all these programmes, as well as additional information about them, is now available on the website https://www.laligagrassroots.com/en