FC Barcelona to India - A Dream Come True


I'm so happy to announce that on October 19th myself and my friends at Conscient Football hosted a press conference announcing FC Barcelona's entry into India through their FCBCamps. The press conference took place at a 5 start hotel in central Delhi and was attended by 60 members of the press. This partnership is the result of passion, commitment and hard work by individuals at Libero Sports, Conscient Football and FC Barcelona. 

2 years ago when I met Rajesh Jain, Director Conscient Infrastructure, he communicated that he wants to create a grassroots football program in India that will attract the best clubs in the world. About a year later, we were well underway with the execution of Conscient Football and it was clear to us that the only club to partner with was FC Barcelona. At that point, I directed all of my energy and efforts into setting up meetings with the club, planning trips to Spain, doing research on other programs, writing proposals and finally hosting the them in India.  It was a crazy, beautiful roller coaster to get to this point and I'm so thrilled the partnership is happening. 

There are a couple of things that I'm most proud of specific to this partnership
  1. Personally, the fact that my plan before coming to India was to create a sustainable model for grassroots football in India and then bring in the best club in the world; this is exactly what happened here and it happened before I even hit my 2 year mark in this country
  2. The fact that there are just good, pure people that have come together from Libero, Conscient and FC Barcelona; no one is in this project for commercial gain; this is about youth, education and football
  3. The fact that that the values and the vision of FC Barcelona and Conscient Football are completely in line giving me full confidence that this program will blossom  and the beneficiaries will be Indian youth aspiring to become better people  
A huge thanks to Anu, Rajesh and Manit Jain for believing in me to get this done and, more importantly, believing in the power that football has to develop youth.

I can literally write a book on our journey to close this partnership, but hopefully this will just be a chapter in a much larger book about growing the beautiful game in this beautiful country.
http://www.conscientfootball.com/
There are some pictures below from the press conference and visit to The Heritage School Gurgaon with FCBEscola Director Xevi Marce.

 

 
 

 

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