Manchester City and love.fútbol offer training for young people in Mexico
Group training in La Doce (Valle de Chalco, Mexico)
On Saturday, September 29th, Gustavo A. Madero (CDMX) and Valle de Chalco (Estado de México) will host a Football Festival to celebrate the Young Leaders Training which has been led by two coaches from Manchester City’s foundation, City in the Community. Delivered to 60 local young leaders from September 24th to 28th.,the one-week training program included classes on Inclusion, Leadership, Education, Health, Social Impact, and personal and professional development to empower young people to develop local sports programs in their communities.
The training is part of Fútbol Matters, a two-year initiative by love.fútbol in partnership withCity Football Groups ’s global community foundation which, in conjunction with both local communities members, built and renovated two courts. It's the second time the training is hosted by El Coyolito (Gustavo Madero, CDMX) and the first time hosted by La Doce (Valle de Chalco, Estado de México). "I want to learn everything I can, have fun, add a new experience to my life and to strengthen my knowledge on sports and social issues to take those practices to my city and to the children we work on our local football clinics", said Fabíola Hernandez, that travelled from Tamaulipas, a city 810 km in the North of Mexico, to take part on the Young Leaders Training.
ManCity coaches, local volunteers, and Young Leaders Training attendees.
Tom Pitchon, City Football Group Foundation Director said: “Manchester City’s community commitment dates back to the founding of the Club over 130 years ago. We are proud to be rolling out the Cityzens Giving Young Leader training in Mexico to help upskill young people who are currently using football for social good.
“This project is making a genuine difference in the local community and we want to equip these young leaders with the leadership, confidence and football coaching skills they need to have a genuine impact in their community.”
In August 2017, after having the most votes in Manchester City's Cityzens Giving campaign, the Fútbol Matters initiative started in Gustavo A. Madero, CDMX with El Coyolito Project. There the community refurbished a court that has been used every day, since then, for structured sports programs run by local young leaders trained during the project. In July 2018, it was time for Valle de Chalco being engaged in the construction of a place to play and to open their new court: La Doce.
Training sessions at El Coyolito (Gustavo A. Madero, Mexico)
"We are very happy to see that both communities embraced and reclaimed their places to play, with more than 300 communities volunteers and more than 2000 hours dedicated to the projects. Nowadays, only in La Doce, a thousand people use the space for a handful of different activities. In the past, it was only 150 people. And young people have a very important role in engaging children and their families with sports, and ultimately with that public space", explains love.fútbol Development Director Breno Lacet.
About Manchester City Football Club - Manchester City FC is an English Premier League club initially founded in 1880 as St Mark’s West Gorton. It officially became Manchester City FC in 1894 and has since then gone onto win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, five League Championship titles, including three Premier League titles (2012, 2014, 2018), and five FA Cups.
Under manager Pep Guardiola, one of the most highly decorated managers in world football, the Club plays its domestic and UEFA Champions League home fixtures at the Etihad Stadium, a spectacular 55,000 seat arena that City have called home since 2003. Today, the Stadium sits on the wider Etihad Campus, which also encompasses the City Football Academy, a state-of-the-art performance training and youth development facility located in the heart of East Manchester. Featuring a 7,000 capacity Academy Stadium, the City Football Academy is also where Manchester City Women’s Football Club and the Elite Development Squad train on a daily basis and play their competitive home games.
For more information, please visit www.mancity.com
About Cityzens Giving
Since 2014, Cityzens Giving is an initiative backed by City Football Group that gives fans the chance to back community football projects around the world. Run by young leaders, the projects have been created to use football in tackling pressing issues affecting young people in their city including substance abuse, unemployment and disability inclusion.
Fans of City Football Group’s family of clubs – Manchester City, New York City FC and Melbourne City FC – get the chance to decide how projects are funded by voting for the cause that inspires them the most. The more votes a project gets, the more funding it will receive.
By 2018, the total funding commitment for Cityzens Giving projects by City Football Group and its partners stands at £2million. Etihad Airways has been Manchester City’s main club partner since May 2009 and is now also the official partner of the Cityzens Giving Young Leaders Summit.
Since it launched more than three years ago, more than 20,000 children and young people in twelve cities have benefitted from the projects. In addition to funding, all projects access leading edge training in community football and opportunities to share learning about how they are using football as a tool for social good.
In October 2016, Cityzens Giving won Corporate Citizenship Campaign of the Year at the annual Beyond Sport awards, designed to support and reward the best projects across the globe that are using sport for positive social change. For more information, please visit www.mancity.com/cityzensgiving