LALIGA opens its first football academy in East China: LALIGA Academy Shanghai

LALIGA has announced the opening of its first academy in East China, which will start operating in 2025 in Shanghai with Tingho Holding. The signing of the official agreement with Tingho Holding took place in Shanghai with the participation of Javier Tebas, President of LALIGA; Sergi Torrents, Managing Director of LALIGA Greater China; Wei Junjie, Managing Director of Tingho Holding; Carlos Ng, CEO of Tingho Holding; Luis Antonio Calvo, Consul General of Spain in Shanghai. LALIGA Academy Shanghai will be part of the more than 830 sports projects in 57 countries managed by the Spanish competition to promote youth football at a global level.

LALIGA Academy Shanghai will host young talents from China aged up to 17, who will train under the highest standards of global youth football through the LALIGA Football Methodology, which brings together the elements that have made Spanish football academies global leaders in youth football. The sports centre will be located in Tianma Country Club and will be equipped with resources and tools for the development of the personal and sporting potential of the participants in a high-performance facility environment.

The academy's sporting project will be directed by a LALIGA technical director, with a UEFA PRO coaching licence, who will travel to China to lead the technical part, thus ensuring the application of the training concepts of the Spanish competition in the programmes taught.

“This academy represents a milestone for LALIGA in China Mainland, as it is our first academy in East China, especially in a city like Shanghai, a long-term project that we have been looking forward to launching for a long time. We know that there is great talent in China that we want to help develop through our methodologies. China is a strategic country for LALIGA, where we have developed youth football projects since 2015” said Javier Tebas, president of LALIGA.

“LALIGA, as one of the world’s top football leagues, is celebrated for its rich history, exceptional players, and global fan base. Through LALIGA Academy, we aim to bring its advanced training philosophy and methods to Shanghai, inspiring children to experience the joy of football and develop a lifelong passion for the sport. Our goal is to encourage them to actively participate, explore, and grow,” said Carlos Ng, CEO of Tingho Holding and Head of LALIGA Academy Shanghai.

LALIGA's Methodology focuses on the development of the players from an integral perspective, covering four essential pillars: tactical-cognitive, technical-coordinative, physical-conditional and psychological-socio-affective. It also emphasises the stimulation of talent and the individualisation of the training process, considering that each player's development process requires different needs. This holistic approach, according to experts, can make a difference in today's football.

The excellent past year of Spanish football, which has won both Euro 2024 and the men's football gold medal at the Olympics, as well as the numerous titles won by the women's teams or the winners of the Ballon D’Or, shows the strength of Spanish youth football. Specifically, at Euro 2024, 25 of the 26 players came from the youth teams of 11 different LALIGA clubs, both LALIGA EA SPORTS and LALIGA HYPERMOTION, a clear indicator of the health of the talent pool that Spanish academies produce year after year to complement the arrival of established stars from abroad. These are the results of work that has been carried out for years in the youth football and youth academies of LALIGA clubs, and which LALIGA seeks to export to support the growth of world football.

LALIGA is a pioneer in the development of youth football among the major European leagues, thanks to its network of academies and short-term projects that focus on the development of young international talent. More than 240,000 young players have been trained in its international sports projects in the last 9 years. The first of these was precisely in China: a project together with the Ministry of Education and CEAIE to promote football in schools. In addition, LALIGA has been organising for the last years the HOPE CUP youth football tournament, a benchmark in the region, where young Chinese talents compete with players from LALIGA's clubs' youth academies.