Having hosted some of the world's top football stars over the last four decades, La Manga Club is renowned across the world as a first-choice destination for a training break, and the award-winning venue has embarked on a new path after becoming the first resort in the world to open a High Performance Football Centre.

Global superstars including David Beckham, Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane have all used the luxury Spanish complex's facilities in recent years and, in a groundbreaking move, La Manga Club has now taken a step in a different direction as it bids to develop future stars of its own.

Famed for its forward-thinking attitude, La Manga Club, located in Murcia, south-east Spain, is offering professionals, both established and aspiring, the chance to sign up to one of its new comprehensive, fully residential programmes to help showcase their skills and further their careers.

Open to footballers of all nationalities, players training at the La Manga Club High Performance Football Centre will be coached, mentored and looked after by the resort's team of experts including UEFA-qualified coaches, professional sport and exercise scientists, physiotherapists, nutritionists and football analysts to help them reach their full potential.

Using La Manga Club's world-class facilities including eight FIFA-approved grass pitches, players will not only be able to improve their fitness and technique at the elite centre, but also have the chance to gain competitive experience and impress watching scouts by playing in friendly matches - including against professional clubs from around the world staying at the resort.

Chad Harpur, director of sports at La Manga Club, said: “Football is embedded in La Manga Club's history and will continue to play a major role in the future success of the resort. The world's leading teams and top federations regularly choose the resort as their preferred overseas base and we have everything a player and team needs on one site.

“The High Performance Football Centre is a first of its kind in world football and has been specifically designed to showcase and develop the players, either to make them better players for their current team or allow them to be seen and signed by another club.

“We have a fully qualified UEFA coaching team that will train the team on a full-time basis and, most importantly, they will spend time working individually with players to help them improve on any weaknesses, with the aim of furthering their careers.

“The new centre also offers an unrivalled opportunity for clubs to discover and sign the most talented football players from around the world which are all in one place and available for contracting.

“According to FIFA statistics, only one per cent of footballers around the world are ever seen by clubs, scouts or agents. But, with us, agents will be able to train and showcase their players to clubs, coaches and scouts visiting during winter and pre-season training camps and international friendly competitions.

“La Manga Club is also the ideal venue for preparing players to play at a higher level, helping them develop professional skills and instinct, ready for top level competition.”

In the past year alone, La Manga Club has played host to more than 150 professional teams and around 500 scouts through a range of training breaks, pre-season tournaments and friendly matches.

With the La Manga Club High Performance Football Centre, players will receive first-class professional coaching that will transform their technical, tactical, psychological and physical abilities into those required of a professional footballer.

As well as eight international-standard pitches, the centre's elite facilities also include a match pitch with stand accommodating 800 spectators, a wide range of soccer training equipment, changing rooms, professional fitness facilities, a biomechanics lab, physio and massage facilities, meeting rooms, spa with hydromassage baths, hot and cold recovery pools, sauna and steam rooms, as well as an extensive choice of restaurants and leisure facilities.

In addition, players will also have access to La Manga Club's new High Performance Sports Centre which, created in conjunction with the Catholic University of Murcia, offers a comprehensive range of services designed to enable players to optimise and monitor their sporting performance, prevent injuries and boost their health and fitness.

Harpur added: “We live sport at La Manga Club. This is something that has never been done before anywhere and we're very excited at offering people the chance to strive to reach their full potential with the new centre.”

Known for its extensive facilities, La Manga Club has hosted the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk in the recent years and the resort is in line for another busy period over the next three months as sides from all over Europe visit, with Borussia Dortmund, Anderlecht, Dynamo Zagreb and CSKA Moscow among them.

Set in 1,400 acres, the resort boasts unrivalled facilities as a sports and leisure destination including three 18-hole championship golf courses, a 28-court tennis centre and a 2,000sqm spa and fitness centre. It also offers the choice of a five-star hotel, four-star serviced apartments and townhouses and more than 20 bars and restaurants.

For more information about the La Manga Club High Performance Football Centre, contact Chad Harpur on +34 968 33 1234, email chad.harpur@lamangaclub.com. For further details about La Manga Club, visit www.lamangaclub.com. 

ENDS

Information for journalists

Press release written and distributed on behalf of La Manga Club by the Azalea Group.

La Manga Club
La Manga Club – www.lamangaclub.com – is an unrivalled sports and leisure paradise which sits between the low hills that separate the Mediterranean from the Mar Menor Sea, just 20 minutes from Murcia airport and an hour from Alicante.

Set out over an area of some 560 hectares (approx. 1,400 acres), it enjoys a mild year-round Mediterranean climate and offers visitors a prestigious five-star hotel, luxury vacation apartments and extensive sports facilities, including three championship golf courses, a new Leadbetter Golf Academy – the only one in mainland Spain – a 28-court tennis centre and eight grass sports pitches. The resort is also home to innumerable leisure facilities, such as the 2,000m2 Spa La Manga Club with its 13 luxurious treatment rooms, comprehensive fitness centre and 25m indoor swimming pool; meeting, banqueting and incentive facilities, and more than 20 restaurants and bars.

As well as hosting both Davis and Fed Cup tennis matches, La Manga Club has signed a long-term deal to be the overseas training resort of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) until 2016. It has also staged the Spanish Open golf championship and regularly attracts professional and international football teams to the first-class year-round training facilities which are also used by rugby and cricket sides.

As a result of more than 40 years of continued investment, innovation and commitment to excellence, La Manga Club is widely recognised as Spain's flagship resort and as one of the finest sports and lifestyle destinations in the world. Evidence of this is provided by its numerous awards and accolades.

La Manga Club was the proud recipient of a 2013 Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel website, for the facilities and service on offer at its five-star Hotel Principe Felipe. The resort has been voted 'Best Golf Hotel/Resort in Spain' by UK readers of Today's Golfer magazine for the last three years and was named 'Best Golf Hotel in Spain' at the 2014 World Golf Awards. La Manga Club has long been a staunch supporter of women's golf, being the official overseas resort partner of the English Women's Golf Association for three years as well as hosting the Ladies European Tour (LET) Qualifying School from 2009-12. La Manga Club is also the venue for the Ladies Murcia Open, an LET Access Series event, and regularly hosts top women's amateur events and teams.

• High-resolution images of La Manga Club may be downloaded for editorial purposes from http://goo.gl/pHbd5b 

For more information on La Manga Club contact Pete Simm on 01730 711920 or email petes@theazaleagroup.com