Valencia CF open Ciutat Esportiva to the #EscolesVCF affected by the flash floods

Football for football. Under this premise, Valencia CF opens the Ciutat Esportiva de Paterna to the clubs of the #EscolesVCF programme affected by the flash floods, whose facilities have been seriously damaged, so that children and youngsters can resume their sporting activities.

Around 500 players from FBCD Catarroja and Atlético Sedaví CF have started training this week at the Valencia CF Ciutat Esportiva facilities that the Club has offered to the 4 most affected VCF Schools so that they can make use of them over the coming months.

The entrance was already an emotional experience for these young footballers who have been affected by the flash floods. For some of them it was their first time at the Ciutat Esportiva del Valencia CF, and, on arrival, they received the warmth of the VCF Academy players and coaches who made a corridor as a sign of support and solidarity with all of them. Football for football.

‘It is a day of hope. Just by seeing the children's faces and their smiles, you realise how they have experienced it and how much it helps them. Seeing the children on a football pitch is what we have been wanting for a long time, explained Oscar Banacloy, president of FBCD Catarroja, to VCF Media.

Together with his players, Oscar took part in the guard of honour, where at the end of the event, Valencia CF president Layhoon Chan, Valencia CF corporate director Javier Solis, VCF Academy director Luis Martinez and club ambassador Miguel Tendillo were also waiting to show their support.

They were joined by first team player Thierry Correia who surprised the young players of FBCD Catarroja and took part in the group photo in which representatives of FBCD Catarroja, Atlético Sedaví, UD Aldaia and Racing Algemesí, together with the Puma Clubs Coordinator in Spain, José Iváñez de Lara, received the sports equipment and balls that Puma has donated to collaborate in their return to football both at the Ciutat Esportiva de Paterna and at other facilities, in the case of UD Aldaia and Racing Algemesí.        

‘It has been unforgettable,’ explains Arnau, FBCD Catarroja's Alevín player. ‘We didn't expect that they would make the guard of honour and that Thierry Correia would come’. ‘Our pitch is waterlogged and we have nothing or almost nothing,’ explains Daniel, who is grateful to be able to train at the Ciutat Esportiva del Valencia CF.

They will be able to do so over the next few months when the Ciutat Esportiva del Valencia CF will host the players of FBCD Catarroja and Atlético Sedaví CF so that they can train and have fun with football, in a return to training that will also count on the collaboration of Coca-Cola, which will supply water for the teams.  

It is just a first step to recovering football for the youngest children in these towns that have been so badly affected by the flash floods and so that at least for a few hours the ball can make them smile again.

Instagram: @academiavalenciacf

X:  @academia_VCF