Qatar Foundation hosts Agrupació Barça Veterans

Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development hosted Ramón Alfonseda, a former FC Barcelona player and President of the European Former Football Players Association (EFPA), earlier today.
Mr Alfonseda, who is also president of the Barça Players Association, listened intently to a presentation outlining the vision and mission of Qatar Foundation. He was introduced to the many educational initiatives, community development projects and scientific research programmes undertaken by Qatar Foundation.
Alfonseda came through FC Barcelona’s youth ranks and went on to make 117 appearances for the club between 1969 and 1973, scoring 27 goals.

He is best remembered for his performance in the 1971 Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup Final) against Valencia, when he scored the winning goal in a game that ended 4-3 to FC Barcelona.

His experiences in the youth side have stayed with him, and he said, “When you are a young player you receive a lot from the coaches and you learn respect, to work as a team and that means you must listen and take care of others. You learn punctuality, to think with others. There are some values that you can transfer very easily with football.”

Commenting on Qatar Foundation’s partnership with FC Barcelona, Mr Alfonseda said, “We must learn from one another. If you can implement something from Barcelona here and we, as Barcelona Football Club, can implement something from you in our country, in our institution, as a club, and in our children. I think when you get a kind of cooperation like this, both sides must see what is possible to get as values from one side to another. I think it is the kind of cooperation that can support and help the world.”