FC Barcelona bring together all the captains for a historic meeting

A total of 199 athletes, all captains of the respective teams from the five professional sports of FC Barcelona, ​​met on Monday at the Auditori 1899 for the first ever meeting between the leaders of the different teams of the club. The initiative, founded by the Center for Sporting Excellence of FC Barcelona As part of the culture and values ​​program, the goal is to create a common internal guideline for the captaincy in the club.

The captains of the first football teams (Sergio Busquets and Alexia Putellas), the basketball team (Nikola Mirotic), handball (Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas), roller hockey (Sergi Panadero) and futsal (Sergio Lozano) as well as their colleagues from the youth teams and the team of the Barça Foundation, shared a day of sharing ideas, experiences and stories that will help put together the club’s captain’s handbook.

The President of FC Barcelona Joan Laporta was also present at the historic meeting and spoke a few words to the assembled captains. He encouraged them to continue leading their respective teams and their important role as representatives of FC Barcelona’s values ​​both on and off the pitch.

In his speech, President Joan Laporta made it clear that meetings like this one make it clear that Barça is “more than a club”: “These meetings show that we are a club with values ​​and values ​​are an integral part of the example of sporting excellence . When we win we celebrate and when we lose we congratulate our opponents in a sporty way: that’s why Barça is known all over the world.” Laporta defended FC Barcelona’s values ​​and made it clear that he would not allow that the essence of the club will be sullied and that the Board will do everything in its power to protect the organization. Therefore, the President of FC Barcelona urged the young captains to defend these principles: “They represent our values ​​and our feeling for the club and show it on the pitch,” he concluded.

The first captains’ meeting took place at various locations. On the one hand, Vice-President for Sport Rafa Yuste welcomed the youth team captains to the Auditori, 113 boys and girls in small working groups who shared their motivations and personal experiences and then debated what it means to be captain of FC Barcelona. The senior team captains met separately to talk about role models, traits, the invisible things they do, the satisfaction that captaincy brings, the challenges, and also advice for their peers.

Then the senior captains went to the auditori, where they were greeted by the youngsters, the vice-president of the institutional area, Elena cont, the board members responsible for each team and members of the FC Barcelona Management Committee. The professional captains answered the younger captains’ questions and shared some of their experiences.

Sergio Busquets Describing his own captains from the past (Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and Messi) and how much he had learned from them: ‘Each of them had their own personality and I was fortunate to be able to take the best of each and add my own Personality to help my teammates”.

handball captain Gonzalo Perez de Vargas spoke about what it takes to be a good captain: “First you have to be a good teammate and a good person,” he said. And basketball captain mirotic said that “Captains need to know how to solve problems.”

Captain in women’s football alexia Putellas said that for her, happiness “isn’t just about winning trophies, it’s seeing all my teammates are happy and enjoying their day-to-day work.”

hockey captain Sergi Panadero and futsal captain Sergio Losano expressed similar sentiments, the latter saying, “If a colleague is going through a difficult time and you can put yourself in their shoes, I’m sure you can help me.”

This ended the event organized by the Center for Sporting Excellence, the organization of FC Barcelona that promotes the sporting and cultural values ​​of the club internally and supports the training of young athletes. This model of sporting excellence is one of the cornerstones on which Barça’s famous values ​​are upheld, but it also works in other areas that make an equally important contribution to sporting performance, such as skills and tactics, medicine, nutrition, psychology, academia, Fitness, technology and physical therapy.