Àlex Roca gives lesson in life to the players at Barça Academy PRO Miami

The ambassador for the FC Barcelona Foundation, Àlex Roca, has visited the athletes at Barça Academy PRO Miami, one of the schools that are 100% owned by the club in the United States and which has 300 soccer players. Roca took the opportunity of his visit to give the youngsters and their families a real lesson in life by raising their awareness of the importance of diversity at a motivational conference associated to his own personal story and titled “You set the limit”.

Roca took on his new role a few months ago, and is one of the Foundation’s references for bettering the lives of young people locally and internationally. He described his own struggles together with his partner, Mari Carme Maza, who interpreted his one and a half hour presentation in sign language, in which the youngsters in the audience were visibly awestruck by what he had to say. 

He explained how despite cerebral palsy affecting 76% of his physical capacity and undergoing two major operations, he is still able to compete in high-resistance sports events such as the Titan Desert 2019, 10km races, triathlons and half marathons. The latest of the latter he had just completed two days before his visit to Barça Academy PRO Miami, where he set a personal best at the distance of 13.11 miles, completing the race in two and a half hours. Many of the players from the FC Barcelona academy in the city had been waiting at the finish line to watch him register the impressive time.

At the end of the talk, the audience gave him a standing ovation and three minutes of applause. Àlex Roca then posed for pictures with the children from Barça Academy PRO Miami, and was presented with two commemorative shirts as a memento of his visit.