Chicago, the fifth FCBEscola in the United States

Next season, the FCBEscola will see the launch of its fifth branch in the United States of America, following the announcement that a new school will open in Chicago, which will be the 35th Barça school worldwide. This announcement further confirms that North America is a key strategic market for FC Barcelona, where the Club opened its office last September, in Manhattan, New York. Chicago, the third most populated city in the United States, joins the FCBEscolas that the Club already has in Florida and Charlotte and those set to open in Austin (Texas) and Virginia.

The new FCBEscola will be located around 30 kilometres to the north of the city, in the Soccer City sports complex. The weather conditions of the area, especially during winter, mean that the training sessions during a large part of the year will take place indoors. This will be the third branch managed by ISL Fútbol, who last season opened an FCBEscola in Charlotte and will soon begin activities in the school to be opened in Austin.

The opening of this school will result in offering a totally complementary technical improvement programme to local clubs, with the objective of developing players with the Barça methodology and to be able to improve their teams. In Chicago, the ID Sessions will be carried out on 4 June, in what will be the future facilities of the FCBEscola in the state of Illinois.

Thirty-five 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. Ahead of the new season, inaugurations are being planned for the schools in Haikou and Chengdu, China, in Austin and Virginia, United States, in Bogotá, Colombia and also in Sydney and Brisbane, Australia.