San Diego, first FCBEscola branch on the West Coast

From next season, the city of San Diego will be the host of a permanent FCBEscola branch, the first on the West Coast of the United States, the sixth across the nation and the thirty-sixth school in total. With the opening of this school, the United States becomes the country with the largest presence of FC Barcelona football schools, following the ones already in Florida and Charlotte along with those set to be inaugurated in Austin, Chicago and Virginia. Furthermore, the FCBEscola San Diego will have a charitable component thanks to the agreement made by the new school with San Diego Unified Public Schools, which will help many children in poverty to enjoy the project.

The project was presented in the facilities of Bell Middle School, which is where the FC Barcelona football school will be held from this coming September, and was attended by the FCBEscola project director, Franc Carbó; the superintendent of San Diego Unified School District, Cindy Marten; director of San Diego Unified Athletic Department, Scott Giusti; and by the partners of the new school, Marc Segarra and Alex Isern (ISLFUTBOL).

The activity in the Californian city will begin during the weekend of May 20 and 21, with the first trials for boys and girls from six to 16 years of age that will take place in the facilities of Morse Soccer High.

Thirty-six FCBEscolas across five continents foreseen for the new season

The FCBEscola is the model of FC Barcelona’s football school aimed at children, the main objective of which is the integral training of its students. This model, exported internationally, seeks to extend the Barça brand and transmit the club’s philosophy of hard work and values to the rest of the world.

The FCBEscola works with its own unique model, based on the Barça methodology from the youth teams right up until the first team, with a creative and attacking style of play, and an indispensable transmission of values: respect, humility, effort, ambition and teamwork, with proven success.

FC Barcelona currently has a total of 27 active FCBEscolas, more than 170 campuses and 50 clinics, with a presence in over 40 countries across five continents with more than 40,000 children taking part in the different activities that it promotes. United States, for the first time, will become the country with the biggest presence of the project from September, with the opening of schools in Austin, Chicago, San Diego and Virginia. Inaugurations are also being planned for schools in Haikou and Chengdu, China, in Austin and Virginia, United States, in Bogotá, Colombia and also in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia.