Last Monday, on 29th February the U13 Football match list came up and to my amazement, mine and Jimena’s names were mentioned between most of the boys from Year 7 and 8. The astounding thing was that we are both girls! But then again, we are both Spanish, and without insulting anybody, I do believe that Spain could teach England a lot about football.
In my old school in Barcelona, we had two different tutor groups. One of them included professional sports boys and girls. Among them, there are the trained football players from Barcelona who live in a kind of boarding house called “La Masia del Barca” where you can find boys from Year 6 up to Year 13 from all over the world, who have been selected for the team. That tutor group has got a special timetable. They finish lessons at half past one instead of five o’clock so that they have the opportunity to combine their studies with all the personal training they receive. Although I am not part of the specialist tutor group, we take sports very seriously and often play football at break. Also, it’s a common practice for boys and girls to play games together.
Considering the English approach to football that I’ve experienced, it is clear to me why Spain achieves much better results in this sport than England!
(Alex Mas Balmana)
