Salgado Exclusive
SF: Tell us a little about the Spanish Soccer School and why you wanted to take up this position in Dubai? MS: When I first came to Dubai Sports City and I saw the vision the partners and staff had, I was impressed. We shared the same goal – to create our own world-class coaching programme. We did not want to go down what would have been an easy path to take – just hiring in an outside club to create an academy. What we wanted to do was to create our own brand. I said that when I was introduced as Dubai Sports City’s Director of Football and I am proud that with the launch of our Spanish Soccer Schools we have done exactly that. I am also delighted to have assembled a world-class group of coaches to teach the style of football that has been so successful – the Spanish style. It is a style that has seen Spain’s national team win the FIFA World Cup and successive UEFA European Championships. Our motto is ‘play well for football, play well for life’ and with registration for the new term now open, we look forward to living that motto with our next group of young players when we get underway in September.
At the Dubai Sports City Football Academy we have coaching programmes for children from walking age with our Socatots programme, and from five years and upwards the kids move to the Spanish Soccer Schools programme. We had more than 800 kids for our first year of operation and we have the best facilities in Dubai, with our outdoor grass and artificial pitches, as well as the Indoor Dome with its permanent, FIFAapproved full-sized pitch. English Premier League sides Swansea City and West Ham United have already come to train with us so that shows what we have at Dubai Sports City is world-class.
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