Next Sunday 16 April, the FC Barcelona women's football team will be training away from their usual home at the Ciutat Esportiva in Sant Joan Despí. They will be going to Palamós for an open doors session with 120 young players from the area, who will get to meet and train with the players. This is the first of a series of similar events to take place at different football grounds in Catalonia.
Under the tag-line ‘Catalonia, our playing field’, FC Barcelona has set up the project in order to make it accessible to children all around Catalonia, by going in person to their own pitches. The women's team has always been admired for their closeness to the fans, their awareness of their status as role models and for their endeavours to promote sport among new generations of girls.
All the details
The venue this Sunday 16 April will be Palamós CF, the oldest football club in Catalonia, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The club and local council are supporting the event as part of a number of festivities in and around the stadium.
The gates will be open for free from 11am to 2pm, where the fans can first watch the Barça women training then then see how 120 young boys and girls, pre-selected by the clubs involved, will be training with the stars. For 40 minutes, the youngsters will be able to talk to and learn from their role models in a series of joint exercises and actions.
The event will end with a group photo, and the players will be throwing signed footballs into the crowd.
The activities have all been designed by the FC Barcelona women's and youth coaching staff, and the event will be further enhanced by the presence of the local singer who made her name on the Eufòria show on TV3, Laura Gibert, and the usual stadium announcer at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, Xènia Casado.
Social impact
The senior women's football team has achieved unprecedented social impact in recent years, and that's not just because of their beautiful football and the trophies they have collected, but also because of the brilliant way that they treat their fans. And all of that is helping to further increase their influence on new generations of young girls, who view them as their role models.
‘Catalonia, our playing field’ ties closely to that social impact, providing a means for the players to interact even further with their young followers, in this case in Catalonia, by not only travelling to their towns, but also meeting them in person and inviting them to join their training sessions
