Barca Academy Nigeria’s new coach promises to maintain parent club’s standards

Widely travelled and experienced FC Barcelona camp coach, Jorge Couto, will replace Bernat Villa as the new technical director at the Barca Academy in Nigeria, the club has announced.

The Barca Academy in Nigeria, according to the club, is doing excellently well in terms of living her vision in the country and in sub-Sahara Africa, where it is pioneering the Barcelona way of life.

Barca said they confirmed Couto’s appointment after a rigorous and thorough screening and trial session in Barcelona, Spain, as recommended by the Academy’s World Technical Board.

Couto, like Bernat Villa, is acclaimed to be a stickler of discipline, reputable for excellence and professionalism, a great teacher of values and a good role model to emulate.

During his maiden meeting with the Academy’s Technical Team in Nigeria, Couto acknowledged that his appointment was challenging, adding, however, that he would not betray reposed in him by his predecessor and the promoters of the academy in Nigeria.

“The confirmation of my engagement by the promoters of the academy in Nigeria is an honour and keeping the standard set by the former technical director is a challenging task we would strive to maintain with the support of the technical hands and other staff involved,” he said.

Also speaking on the appointment, chairman, Blaugrana Group International, facilitators of the academy in Nigeria, Leslie Oghomienor said the parent body was particular and conscious of the importance of keeping at par with globally acceptable standards, process, and procedures, compliance and values dictated by the club.

“Our main intent is to serve humanity in our own little ways and means possible. And embarking on this journey before we pulled up, a lot of lives, would be making great impacts, in their own spheres and space of life. That is a dream we are striving to live.

“This can only be achieved with the best and we will not rest until that is done for the interest of the future – our dearest and beloved young children. Like Villa, we believe Couto is here to help us actualize this vision. He is the best among the best, with him and the technical and the supporting staff, we are sure to live up, if not beyond the expectations of our stakeholders who believed so much in us,” Oghomienor stated.

He boasted that FC Barcelona’s academy is in Nigeria to stay, adding that the new technical head would soon embark on a tour of the academy’s facilities in the country.