Real Madrid starts football academies in India

Real Madrid Foundation have announced the commencement of their football programme across India from August 2024. The move comes after Barcelona FC announced the shutting down of their Indian football academies from this month.

Real Madrid Foundation, in partnership with Conscient Sports, will take over those academies and continue to impart training to budding footballers.

The Real Madrid Foundation will start operations in the National Capital Region in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune in about 30 academies. The academies will serve as the hubs of football excellence and will offer state-of-the-art training to almost 4,500 budding footballers to start with.

Real Madrid’s football academy is named La Fabrica and they have nurtured some of the world’s best players including big stars like Raul and Iker Casillas.

The coaching team from Real Madrid will comprise coaches who have a licence from the Asian Football Confederation and the All India Football Federation. The coaches will impart training on the lines of Real Madrid’s methodology. The coaches will undergo a programme from Real Madrid and will be certified by the Spanish club.

The coaches will have the support of technical directors from Real Madrid, who hold an UEFA Pro licence. The directors will head the academies and will be in India to ensure that the training standards are on par with Real Madrid’s methodologies.

The Real Madrid academies will slowly expand to other cities and will also include enhanced training facilities over the next few years.

Real Madrid’s advent in India will help thousands of aspiring footballers who were left in the lurch after FC Barcelona announced that they were shutting down academies in India in July 2024.

In a statement on the website, FC Barcelona said: “FC Barcelona have informed the families involved in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune will cease to operate as Barca Academies from 1 July 2024.”