255 young North American football talents come to ESC LaLiga & NBA Centre in Madrid to train with LaLiga

LaLiga Select, the talent detection and development programme launched in 2021 by LaLiga North America together with ISL Agency, touched down in Spain during February and March to train 255 young players from the USA and Canada at the ESC LaLiga & NBA Centre in Madrid. The numbers of this second edition are double those of 2022, when 118 players were selected to train with LaLiga in a training camp in Spain.

The players, aged between 12 and 19, were selected by LaLiga Grassroots scouts and coaches during 2022 from a total of more than 18,600 participants across 18 events and tournaments in locations such as Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas (Nevada). In addition, players from LaLiga academies in the country, such as LaLiga Academy New York, were also assessed.

The players, divided into 2 groups of 124 and 131 players, spent almost a month in Madrid training intensively with 8 LaLiga coaches, including a goalkeeping coach, to face a series of matches with the youth teams from Atlético de Madrid, Rayo Vallecano, Getafe CF, Fuenlabrada CF and CD Leganés. In addition, the 7 teams, split by age, played against another historic club in the region (Rayo Majadahonda) and trained with Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid in their training centres.