Catala FC Academy, a classic participating team at MICFootball, have five teams in the first edition of MICFootball Punta Cana, under the direction of Xavi Mondelo.
When the coaches and players of the Catala FC Academy see each other for the first time in a day, they greet each other with a ‘good afternoon’ or a ‘good morning’. They all know what is celebrated on April 23, for Sant Jordi, or how Christmas is lived in Catalonia. All of this might seem irrelevant. But the Catala FC Academy is not based in Barcelona, Girona, or anywhere else in Catalonia. Its reason for being is in Puerto Rico.
And much of the blame for this happening in Central America has to do with its director, Xavi Mondelo. With 12 years of experience working for FC Barcelona on different projects around the world in Japan, Korea and China, fate took him to the other side of the ocean, where he directed all of the club’s academies on the American continent.
And there a new personal and professional opportunity arose. Working in Puerto Rico, he decided to start a new football project, taking advantage of his experience traveling the world. Said and done. Together with Barça’s ‘partner’ in Argentina, Puerto Rico and Paraguay, they launched the Catala FC Academy, which currently has academies in Puerto Rico, El Salvador and Miami.
“I didn’t think it would be a project that would only stay in Puerto Rico, I wanted it to evolve and grow”, explains the club’s director, Xavi Mondelo himself. For this reason, one of the important legs of the Catala FC Academy is the international aspect, through which the players and coaches participate in different experiences, including those offered at the MIC.
In fact, two or three teams from the club play at the MIC on the Costa Brava every year. “It’s a way to start an international, professional project that would serve the boys and girls of Puerto Rico, El Salvador and Miami to expose themselves competitively” beyond the borders of their country and the American continent, remarks Mondelo. They didn’t hesitate for a moment to also join the MICFootball Punta Cana experience. And they have done so since last Wednesday with five teams: two in the U12 category and one in the U13, U14 and U16 categories, with players trained mostly in Puerto Rico and the United States.
And a year from now, Mondelo himself is clear that “next year we will definitely repeat in Punta Cana”, in addition to the Easter event on the Costa Brava. The more experiences the club and the players can add, the better, always starting from three key ideas: creativity, ambition and teamwork, which define their way of being. Without renouncing the club’s founding DNA. “In the end, I am Catalan and with Catala FC we try to transmit to the boys and girls of the club the methodology of Catalonia, its values and its culture”, says Xavi Mondelo.
Football from Catalonia for the world. And from the world for Catalonia. Mondelo’s touch will continue to be the protagonist from Puerto Rico, making the Catala FC Academy project roll for many more years.
