Barcelona set to open its first youth camp in Sochi, Russia

Barcelona will open its first youth camp in Russia, specifically Sochi, on June 12th.

The FCB Escola will be the only official one on Russian soil during the summer and will be open to youngsters between 6 and 13 years of age, regardless of their footballing abilities.

It will be the biggest football academy in Russia and will feature a contingent of Spanish coaches with international experience, who will teach both theory and practical classes to boys and girls.

The idea is to offer all the children involved the chance to share in FCB Escola method, which is inspired by Barcelona‘s core values: respect, effort, ambition, team work and modesty.

It is also an opportunity for Russian coaches to learn from their Spanish counterparts, as the Russian Ministry of Sport is determined to develop the local grassroots and youth football scenes ahead of the World Cup to be held in the country in 2018.

Barcelona sports schools are now operating in Spain, Ireland, the U.K., Japan, Italy, Croatia and Luxembourg, and accept children from 7 to 15 years old.

The FCB Escola is the club’s youth football academy which was founded more than 40 years ago and which has allowed Barcelona to have 80% of its current first team players come from the youth teams.

Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Busquets and Pedro all came from the FCB Escola and most of them were the pillars of the Spanish national team which won two European Championships and the World Cup.

The training camp in Sochi is not the first educational center for children to be opened in Russia. Real Madrid also have one in Rostov-on-Don, while a branch of Ajax Amsterdam’s football academy operates in Moscow and trains children from 6 to 12 years old.