FINDING a commonality in seeing children live better lives through a more healthy and active lifestyle, Milo Philippines and FC Barcelona have tied up for a four-year partnership geared toward their shared vision.
Road to Barcelona, a selection camp that will scout for the next football champions, was officially launched yesterday by the two groups at the F1 Hotel in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.
The program will see Milo help build the dreams of kids by providing them access to world-class coaching and venues with help from world-renowned football club Barcelona at its home of Nou Camp.
First announced last year, Milo and Barcelona are now setting things in motion to finally see their cause of inspiring kids to be physically active and healthy by way of sports through.
“We are proud and honored to have one of the biggest football clubs in the world share in our commitment to build champions through sports. It is our hope that this values-driven partnership helps build kids’ dreams and realize them through the Road to Barcelona program,” said Willy de Ocampo, Milo Business Unit Manager, of their partnership with Barcelona, which boasts of players like Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Andres Iniesta.
“We’re inviting the passionate local sports community to be part of this four-year journey with FC Barcelona,” he added.
For this year, Milo Philippines will be sending a team of 10 kids to participate in an international training camp in Nou Camp.
Players to be selected, between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, will be chosen based on the right mix of values (60%) and skill (40%).
The criteria are aligned with Milo and Barcelona’s thrust of pushing for humility, effort, ambition, respect and teamwork in everything one does.
In connection with the program, a local selection camp will be held on Sept. 2 and 3 at the McKinley Hill Stadium in Taguig City where a pool of invited participants from different football communities in and around Metro Manila will undergo extensive training to be included in the official short list.
From the list, two deserving team members will be granted an all-expense-paid trip in recognition of their skills and values.
The remaining eight slots, who need to shoulder their own air fare and visa, will be chosen based on the local camp ranking system.
Deliberating on the performance of deserving young footballers will be an expert panel made up of officials of Milo, Philippine Football Federation, IGNITE Sports and coaches from FC Barcelona.
The group from the Philippines will take part in the four-day Milo-FC Barcelona camp in Nou Camp in October along with other participating Milo countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Columbia.
The program will be in effect for four years with organizers promising further improvements along the way. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
