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Barcelona Football Academy Set For Rwanda

Barcelona Football Academy Set For Rwanda

Current UEFA Champions League title holders Barcelona have announced plans to open a football academy in Rwanda at the end of the year, with the aim of nurturing young talent in the East African region.

Based on the the proven methods of the La Masia Youth Academy in Barcelona, which produced the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Gerard Pique, amongst others, the academy in Rwanda will select talented footballers in the region for further development in an attempt to produce future players of high calibre.

This will benefit the local game and have the potential to provide the Spanish La Liga club with a pool of additional talents from which to source players of quality from Africa.

The RG Football Academy is set to officially open in December this year, and will provide Rwandan junior football with an invaluable addition to the youth infrastructure in the country, as a serious brand name of global football begins to develop African talent.

At a cost of $10 million, the Kigali academy will be built in time to open its doors in December, with training sessions by legendary coach and player Johan Cruyff set to get the ball rolling with the new academy. The significant investment shows the club’s belief in the talent that will be unearthed in Rwanda and East Africa in general.

Former Barcelona player Luis Garcia spoke about the new academy, and the aim of finding talent by using methods that work well in Spain.

“The RG Sports Academy will help in identifying and training the next generation of Rwandan players equipped with the philosophy of La Masia. The only way to develop football in Rwanda and Africa at large is for people in the football sector to start working like we do in Spain on tactical, physical, psychological concepts,” Garcia said in a recent visit to the country, according to AllAfrica.

With the backing of Barcelona and a philosophy of coaching and nurturing talent that is proven to have worked well in the past, the RG Football Academy may in future produce the next Leo Messi or Carles Puyol from the region.