Valencia CF, protagonists of LaLiga Spotlight

Valencia CF have been the protagonist of the LaLiga Spotlight initiative through which LaLiga and the clubs offer a 360º vision through various protagonists to fans from all over the world through statements to different international media outlets. 

Valencia CF’s President Anil Murthy, the General Director of the VCF Academy, Sean Bai, and our football player Yunus Musah have participated in a round table to analyse different topics such as the continuous growth of Valencia CF, the VCF Academy as a reference model, the VCF DNA and the importance of innovation in the world of football. 

United States and United Kingdom media outlets like Associated Press, BBC Sport, CBS Sports, Daily Mail, ESPN, The Athletic, The I, The Sun, The Times, Global Data, Off The Pitch or GOAL have focused on Valencia CF through a joint action with LaLiga.  

- Ethos and the philosophy that guides the management at the club.

“This year our theme has been DNA Valencia CF because this Club is a historic club with more than a hundred years of history.  We’ve won many titles, we've given lots of joy and frustration and sadness to the fans, but it’s a club with a long history that always competes, every game fighting all the way until the end and that is a philosophy that we are going to maintain. 

One other part that has always been the same is that we always had academy boys coming up, boys who started really young in Valencia CF in our sports city with the Academy. They know everyone in the city and people identify themselves with these young players, Valencian players who came up from the academy.   

This is something that we are continuing as well, but of course given the different demands of modern football, given that today, there are clubs that are mega spending clubs, it’s how you adjust within the same philosophy for Valencia CF to compete in this new era of modern football”.

- What are Valencia CF’s priorities for this medium to long term era? 

“The way you describe it as an investment is how we should see what is happening with CVC coming in to partner with LaLiga to invest and to help LaLiga. CVC has a lot of experience in many sports industries, and they have identified LaLiga as one where they can see growth and we Valencia CF have always supported this partnership. In fact, even before CVC came in, we were already planning to improve and enhance the areas that CVC is trying to do.    

We see ourselves as a modern club. We’ve invested heavily in digital transformation and we are seeing the results today. We are one of the first clubs in LaLiga to start an innovation hub, working with Start Ups that are able to contribute in verticals that relate directly to football. We are one of LaLiga clubs that from the beginning has put a lot of emphasis on developing youth because we see youth as the future of this club, again in the context of modern football where we are competing against these mega spending clubs.

We have always wanted to finish the new stadium. This is not something new, it has been sitting as it is for more than ten, twelve, fifteen years. The question is what do we do now that we have got this big investment coming in to move ahead. The new stadium project is a very exciting one because since the time it was conceived, of course, things have changed. As a club, we invest and put a lot of emphasis on technology, not just on football. Of course, football will be an anchor but the identity of Valencia CF as a brand will also anchor this project. But technology is going to be key, in how to make this project attractive 365 days a year.   

The advantage that we have is the location, it is in the city, in an area that is growing and has a large population as well, and we see this project as one that is integrated into the city that is going to provide a new life to the city with all the offerings that we can do making sure that the fans of today and the fans of the future, because that is an aspect that we have to address. 

How do we maintain the number of fans that are coming to the game, how do we grow in a city like Valencia? We have to offer something different. If we want to be a unique project in Europe”.   

- Keys of the success of the Academy

“Basically, about four years ago we really thought through what we were going to do with the academy. The idea is that the academy is not somewhere in which we can expect results in a short time. We have made a very concerted effort to look at the medium and long term, and build a pipleine of players that are able to compete at the highest level. We decided to put the player at the centre of the project, and surround them with all of the elements that are very important: For example, training staff, nutritionists, medical services... Apart from that, we decided to build a very important environment.

We look at, for example, the residence, the scouting department, and management of the facility. We went into the details of every aspect of the academy, and made a plan to grow each area over the years. We didn't want to rush to try to build the best facility in a year. You can have a Ferrari, but in a motorcycle race it isn't necessary. We timed everything so that every year there is always something to look forward to; every year there is always a big step forward. In our day-to-day, what we really did was instil a culture of learning and self-upgrading. Everybody involved in this project has this initiative.

There is a push and a motivation at the club to grow every year, because at a football club or academy there is always the tendency to repeat what you have been doing. It's comfortable that way. We have been pushing ourselves out of this comfort zone, to really try different ideas. We can fail. In the academy we adopt the concept of it being a place for us to make mistakes -but to learn from them. We have a safe environment where we have the confidence and the room to not do well and learn from it, eventually preparing players for the step up to professional football”.

- 30th anniversary of the Academy

“This week we are celebrating 30 years of the Ciudad Deportiva. It was operative before, but inaugurated officially 30 years ago. Over these 30 years, we have had 105 players make their first team debut for Valencia CF. It's an amazing number, and also the result of the work that we've been doing over the years. This week we have been doing a lot of work and events, but with a lot of partners. We didn't want to put too much attention and fanfare on the celebrations. We went back to our roots. For example, on Monday we had a Forum to recount the history, anecdotes and stories that we have here over 30 years, with ex-players, current academy players and residents, with our female players as well. Yesterday we invited our 41 partner schools in the region to join us here for a day of theoretical presentations of training and matches.

At the same time, we had a few of our younger teams playing to provide a visual reference to all our partners who came along. We had around 400 coaches from all these partner clubs. This morning we had a social event with our partner club, which features kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. They had a chance to enjoy a day of football here. Yunus and Ilaix dropped by to say hi to the players. It was a beautiful thing. We wanted to connect our club more closely with our community. This evening we are going to have an internal tournament for our football teams, and some of the first team players will drop by to help them as well, giving them an extra push and motivation. On Friday we will have a gala, in which we give prizes to players, staff and coaches who have been exemplary in their work over the years.

We want to recognise them and we really want to put them on the radar for all the work that they have been doing behind the scenes over the years. This is what makes the whole academy tick. Next week we will launch our documentary mini-series about our day-to-day work here, with the different departments that we have created and new projects that we are embarking on. We have incorporated our female academy back into the Ciudad Deportiva. These are things that we really want to share with our friends around Europe and the world”.

- What attracted him to Valencia CF

“Firstly, I was born in the Bronx, and I’ve lived in various places so it wasn’t something hard to come to a new culture. The thing that really attracted me was the history behind the Club, knowing so many players from the academy and being given an opportunity to flourish in the first team. If I didn’t have this opportunity, maybe I wouldn’t know these players. Valencia CF has given me this opportunity from young and this is something that really attracted me and made me come and persuade my dreams here”.

- Life in Valencia

"Living in Spain is being great, I’ve met a lot of new people and I am trying to learn the language. It’s another thing that I’ve added to my life and no one can take away from me. And the best part is that I am doing what I love, which is playing football and at this age playing for the first team and having the trust from the Club to play is amazing. It's similar to when I was in Italy, similar coaches, so it is very nice."

- Moving from Arsenal to Valencia CF

"I am very happy to have played for Arsenal, but I felt that Valencia CF had a great plan for me and they had full confidence in me as a player. It was a very important decision. Valencia CF offered me what I thought was a great and exciting plan. I liked it, it appealed to me and as a player I was really happy".

- Growth with Bordalás

"Bordalás told me that I could improve in various facets of the game and in the physical aspect, that I could steal more balls and participate more in the team's attack. He encourages me to contribute in the distribution of the game, take more risks and things like that that could improve my performance as a player".