Real Madrid Foundation signs agreement with Nabaa AlSalman Group to launch educational project in Iraq

NEWS | 16/09/2019

Enrique Sánchez and Álvaro Arbeloa presented the project, which will involve 300 children, at the Santiago Bernabéu.

The executive vice-president of the Real Madrid Foundation, Enrique Sánchez, signed the collaboration agreement between the Foundation and Nabaa AlSalman Group, an Iraqi consortium that operates in the fields of education and health. The signing event, which was held at the Santiago Bernabéu, was attended by the Iraqi ambassador to Madrid, Mustafa Kamil; and the consortium's executive director, Hayder Salman - who put pen to paper on the agreement - as well as club and Foundation ambassador Álvaro Arbeloa.

The project features permanent training of the school's sports coaches and is part of the Annual Educational Football Programme, designed by the Foundation to work alongside the leading educational institutions and schools from across the world on the implementation of football and its values within the academic curriculum.

Personal growth
The programme, which is based on the experience of the socio-sporting schools and the advanced football camps and clinics that have been staged to date, aims to offer a flexible advice model which adapts to the level of knowledge of each group of pupils and their educational context. In this regard, Arbeloa noted that "education through football allows the children to adopt the values and they not only improve technically and tactically but grow as individuals too".

ARBELOA: "EDUCATION THROUGH FOOTBALL ALLOWS THE CHILDREN TO ADOPT VALUES"

Hayder Salman expressed his excitement at the link-up, commenting that: "This project is something that the Iraqi children need, whilst it also offers these young athletes, who love peace, values and the principles of sport, a real channel of communication with Real Madrid, who have millions of fans right throughout Iraq". Meanwhile, the ambassador stated that: "The programme will help foster the historic bilateral relations between Iraq and Spain, which go back over 70 years".

The Annual Educational Football Programme features weekly monitoring of the implementation and progress of the application of the programme, a task carried out by the Real Madrid Foundation coordinators. In all instances, the starting point is an individual analysis of the players, the choice of a playing style, annual target setting and the design of training sessions according to a series of criteria.

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