Raul Gonzalez named as a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy

Raul Gonzalez, LaLiga country manager for the United States, took his place alongside Liga BBVA ambassador, Carles Puyol, and other sporting legends at the events held on the eve of the Laureus Sports Awards ceremony, the premier honours event in international sport, which is to be staged in Berlin on Monday. This year, FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi feature amongst the nominees representing LaLiga.

The sporting personalities joined youngsters from the Laureus-supported projects at the Laureus Sport for Good Jam in Berlin. Since its inception, Laureus has raised over €100 million for projects which have helped to improve the lives of millions of young people. The mission of the Laureus Sport for Good Jam is to use sport as a means to tackle some of the toughest social challenges facing young people today, such as violence, crime, discrimination, unemployment and lack of education.

During the event, Raul Gonzalez was announced as a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy, along with the German skiing star, Maria Hoefl-Riesch. LaLiga's country manager for the USA had the following to say on his induction into the Academy and the time spent with the youngsters: "It's a great honour for me to be joining these sporting legends, who all share in my belief about the power of sport. Today we witnessed the great influence that the Laureus projects have on these young people's lives and I’m looking forward to working with my fellow Academy members in helping to share the powerful message of sport." Upon his induction, Raul received the congratulations of Carles Puyol, who was also in attendance.

The two new Academy members got straight down to work, as the pair took part in several of the activities with the young people. Also present at the event were Laureus World Sports Academy chairman, Edwin Moses; footballing icons, Cafu and Jens Lehmann; motor racing legend, Mick Doohan; and Olympic gold medallists, Nadia Comaneci and Cathy Freeman. In the words of the Laureus World Sports Academy chairman, Edwin Moses,"this is what Laureus is all about, these sporting legends who all achieved so much during their careers, engaging with youngsters from our Laureus projects here in Germany. When people talk about sport having the ability to change people’s lives, we saw proof of it today."