Football 

LaLiga offers young players opportunities to train and compete in Spain through Next Gen Draft programme. Photos courtesy of La Liga

 HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese young players will have chances to sharpen their skills through an international programme entitled Next Gen Draft by Spanish La Liga and EA Sports.

The two parties have launched Next Gen Draft, a project within the framework of the EA Sports FC Futures social impact programme, designed to discover and develop young football talent around the world while fostering community engagement through the values of football.

It will begin with more than 1,000 children in five countries across three continents and will conclude with 40 selected children, who will travel to Spain for a training camp with LaLiga and its clubs.

“We're very excited about this project. It's a programme that allows us to reach thousands of children, train them and continue helping them to enjoy football," said LaLiga’s Executive Director Jorge de la Vega.

"FC Futures is particularly important to us, because it helps us build the football we want for tomorrow, today.

James Salmon, Senior Director, Franchise Activation, EA Sports FC Futures, said: “We’ve had the privilege of working on some fantastic community projects with LaLiga and EA Sports FC Futures over the past few years, from pitch refurbishments to scholarship programmes: all with the goal of creating a positive impact and growing the sport. 

“Looking forward, it’s incredibly exciting to now be involved in talent discovery within community football and contributing to the development of the next generation of football stars."

EA Sports FC Futures will test Vietnamese footballers on April 11-13 at the HCM City's Gia Định Stadium.

Earlier, it will visit Rustenburg, South Africa, on March 1-2; New York, USA on March 8-9; Dubai, the UAE, on March 27-28; Guatemala City, Guatemala on April 5-6.

At each stop, children will compete to advance through the various project phases and become one of only eight finalists (four boys and four girls) from each location who will travel to Spain at the beginning of June. 

Both boys and girls can register to take part in the programe.

 The youngsters will have to undergo training with UEFA Pro-licensed LaLiga coaches under the FC Futures Academy methodology. Each practice was carefully designed using in-game footage from FC 25 in combination with expert coaching insights, effectively merging physical and digital football. This innovative approach creates an engaging and enhanced training experience for young players.

The 32 best (16 boys and 16 girls) will advance to the next phase to play a full football match against a local team. After this match, the four best boys and four best girls will be selected to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with LaLiga.

The selected players will participate in training sessions developed under the LaLiga Academy methodology, and will play matches against youth teams from LaLiga clubs, and will receive training and guidance from experts from the football industry.

FC Futures is EA Sports' long-term initiative to invest in community-level football on a global scale. As well as investing in partner programmes, donating playing equipment in countries, they launched FC Futures Academy, a free-to-access, online library of training drills for coaches to use in their everyday training.

The project consists of a selection process that starts with 1,000 children in five countries and will conclude with 40 selected children, who will enjoy a training camp in Madrid in June.

 FC Futures also invests in refurbishing pitches in disadvantaged areas to drive participation in football, creating safe spaces for local young people to access the game. 

LaLiga is one of the largest football ecosystems worldwide with its presence in 34 countries through 11 representative offices. It is also the most followed football league with 247 million followers in the world. LaLiga is based in Madrid and presents on 16 social media platforms and supports 20 different languages. VNS