Josep Guardiola backs FCB Escola

After training on Wednesday evening, Josep Guardiola posed with FCB Director Xevi Marcé and ex-player Julio Alberto for a photo which symbolised his support for all the Club projects which have recently been undertaken around the world. And there are plenty of them too! On Monday, a new FCB Escola opens in Seoul in South Korea and in January the project in India, which aims to bring in 10,000 children over the next three years, will get underway.

The Seoul school will take in 250 students and its Technical Director will be the ex-Barça, Mallorca, Valencia and Villarreal player Josep Serer. South Korea has a long footballing tradition and hosted the 2002 World Cup and there are also three young South Korean players on Barça's books:  Seungho Paik (Cadet B) and two youngsters who arrived this year and play for Infantil A, Jang Gyeolhee and Lee Seung Woo.

In contrast, India doesn't have that much of a football tradition, but the FCB Escolas are aiming to train up 10,000 youngsters over the next three years in a project that gets underway in January and will be led by ex-Barça player Josep Moratalla. The first campus will be in New Delhi, to be followed by other centres in Calcutta and Goa.

Brazil in December

In December a similar project will start in Brazil, with centres in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and  Salvador de Bahía and as with all new centres, Xevi Marcé's team have been busy for quite a few months with the preparations.

A month ago, a deal was struck to create the first FCB Escola in Europe – in Poland, where four centres will be set up in Warsaw to train more than 1,000 children in the Barça method.