Members of the coaching staff and the squad of the Barça Genuine Foundation team explain their experience to the athletes and resident athletes

Members of the coaching staff and the squad of the Barça Genuine Foundation team explain their experience to the athletes and resident athletes.

Within the framework of the Aula de Formació Continuada programme, which started in the 2021/22 season with the aim of promoting training beyond sport for male and female athletes residing at La Masia, on Wednesday the 18th of January, a talk was held on Inclusive Sport in the La Masia Auditorium. It was given jointly by the head of the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of FC Barcelona, Maite Laporta, and the coach and psychologist of the Barça Foundation team, Sergi Mascarell and Tina González. Some male and female players from this team also took part: Abel Bau, Manel Solà, Berta Sió, Pol Montía and Dani Rodríguez.

In front of an auditorium full of young athletes from all the Club's teams, the Barça Genuine Foundation coaching staff members explained in detail how this football team works and what this football team entails, made up of people with intellectual disabilities, whose main objective is to improve the life of its male and female players. The head of the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion opened the session offering an overview of what inclusive sport is.

One of the young persons attending the event, Alejandro Oviedo, a player from FC Barcelona's children’s B team, highly valued the talk he had just heard. "I have learned a lot about what inclusive sport is, it has opened my eyes," he said. Near him, Pol Falomí, a futsal Cadet A player, pointed out: "We have learned that with work and effort, everybody can practise the sport they want".

The event was also attended by former first-team player Oleguer Presas, who is part of a popular self-managed football academy project, La Caserna, which proposes to live sports far from competitiveness, giving more importance to the people than to the results and avoiding gender stereotypes. On the 29th of January, two teams from La Caserna will visit the sports complex and will play two simultaneous friendly matches with the Barça Foundation.